People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok speaks at a special committee meeting on real estate policy normalization at the National Assembly on Friday. [Yonhap]
People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok speaks at a special committee meeting on real estate policy normalization at the National Assembly on Friday. [Yonhap]

People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok said Sunday that "eight years of Democratic Party governors have run Gyeonggi Province into the ground," taking aim at Gyeonggi Governor Choo Mi-ae after she called for a restructuring of the local fiscal system to address the province's financial difficulties.

In a Facebook post Sunday afternoon, Jang said Choo had described Gyeonggi Province as a "hollow rich" — flush with economic output but with no money to spend — and blamed the local fiscal system rather than her Democratic Party predecessors, former governors Lee Jae Myung and Kim Dong-yeon. "Is that really so?" he wrote.

Jang said that during Lee's tenure as governor, the province introduced a wave of free-benefit programs — including a youth basic income, free school uniforms and postpartum care subsidies. "When acquisition tax revenue surged on the back of soaring real estate prices in 2020, the province hiked its welfare budget by 12.8%," he said, adding that the current approach of recklessly expanding spending on the strength of a semiconductor boom was "no different at all."

He argued that as a result, Gyeonggi Province's debt ballooned by 64.5% in a single year during Lee's final year as governor in 2021. "The fixed welfare expenditures created at that time have been a burden on Gyeonggi Province's finances ever since," he said.

Jang also criticized the current provincial administration, saying welfare spending already accounts for 49 percent of the total budget and would climb to 60 percent under Choo's plans. "She is pushing to increase an already bloated welfare budget even further while demanding more taxes," he said.

He noted that Gyeonggi Province's fiscal self-reliance ratio stands at 44 percent, far above the national average of 32.3 percent, and that most other local governments operate under far tighter financial conditions. "Yet no other local government is crying poverty the way Gov. Choo is," he said.

Choo doubled down on the need for local fiscal reform in her own Facebook post Sunday, titled "The cause of the illusion that Gyeonggi Province is wealthy." She argued that no matter how astronomically Gyeonggi's gross regional domestic product grows on the back of income generated by chipmakers in the province, "Gyeonggi Province does not see a single won more in tax revenue."

Meanwhile, Jang is set to unveil a party reform plan early this week, ahead of the first anniversary of his inauguration on Aug. 23. The plan is expected to include measures to realize a "member-centered party," a vision he outlined at the first meeting of a TF on evaluating and reforming elected officials, held on July 28.


hanira@heraldcorp.com