Opposition politicians seized on Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae's declaration of a provincial fiscal emergency Thursday, directing their fire at President Lee Jae Myung — the province's former governor — as the primary architect of its financial troubles.
People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok wrote on Facebook that "looking at Gyeonggi Province today, you can see what South Korea will look like tomorrow," warning that eight years of Democratic Party governance had left the province's finances in ruins. "They say there is no budget left to spend right now," he added.
Jang named Lee directly as the culprit. "The chief culprit is President Lee Jae Myung, the former Gyeonggi governor," he wrote, criticizing Lee for expanding welfare programs and distributing money "without any plan."
"It is the same now that he is president," Jang added. "They say next year's budget will be the largest in history. He never stops calling for supplementary budgets at every opportunity."
People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won also took to Facebook, calling Choo's declaration of fiscal collapse "a prophecy of national bankruptcy that President Lee Jae Myung will bring about."
Na cited former governor Kim Dong-yeon by name, writing that he had repeated what she called "cash-handout politics" — including disaster relief payments, local currency programs and various direct cash transfers — seven times, pouring in 4.2 trillion won ($2.94 billion) in total. She said the spending had been covered not through the general budget but through various funds and local government bonds, "structurally destroying Gyeonggi Province's finances."
Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok also weighed in on Facebook, warning that while Gyeonggi Province could turn to the central government for help when times were hard, the country itself would have nowhere to turn. "I do not want to hear in four years, at the national level, the same things being said today about Gyeonggi Province," he wrote.
moon@heraldcorp.com
