Mok Min Gwan Club Urges "Passage of Autonomous Finance Implementation Bill"

Local government heads belonging to the Mok Min Gwan Club voiced unanimous calls on the 5th for passage of bills to realize local decentralization and autonomous finance.

The Mok Min Gwan Club, a research group of mayors, county chiefs, and district office heads of the Fifth Popular Elected Term, held a press conference on '5+1 legislative petitions for local decentralization and autonomous finance realization' at the National Assembly Hall of Opinions at 11 a.m. that day.

They stated: "As with the infant and young child childcare support project where controversy has already been anticipated, the autonomy of local finance has virtually disappeared due to burdens from central government projects, real estate market downturn, and decreased tax revenue. To resolve this, we must innovate the administrative and financial relationship between central and local governments from a centralized system to a citizen participation-oriented decentralization system."

They continued: "To revitalize regional diversity and fundamentally improve the state of autonomous finance and local decentralization through inspection, we present the 5+1 legislative petitions. We urge their prompt adoption as key agendas in the 19th National Assembly and improvement of related laws and systems."

Mayor Yom Tae-young also suggested: "As we approach the end of the year and the presidential election, we must actively push forward so that political parties adopt issues of autonomy, decentralization, and expansion of local fiscal resources as presidential campaign pledges."

Meanwhile, the Mok Min Gwan Club is a policy research and communication group created by Fifth Popular Elected Term local government heads for the purpose of realizing sustainable regional development and grassroots democracy. It was founded in September 2010 and currently has 54 participating heads of organizations.