Minister of Planning and Budget Park Hong-keun said Monday that using the future response fund to ease the fire department fiscal burden on local governments is "worth considering from the standpoint of local fiscal stability," as formal discussions on the idea gain momentum.
Park made the remarks at a plenary session of the National Assembly's Budget and Accounts Committee, responding to a question from People Power Party lawmaker Park Jeong-ha on whether he would support drawing on the future response fund for fire department finances.
"The reason we created a local account within the future response fund was to supplement the fiscal capacity of local governments," Park said. "Fire department budgets have placed a strain on local finances."
Park added that discussions are underway on how to address not only personnel costs in the fire sector but also aging equipment and fire safety gear. "We are looking at how the National Assembly can help fill those gaps," he said.
Meanwhile, the ruling party and government held a senior consultative meeting Sunday and agreed to review a plan under which the central government would provide 2 trillion won ($1.47 billion) to local governments for urgent, essential fire department investment, along with additional measures to expand fire department funding.
At the meeting, the two sides discussed channeling fire department budget allocations into the future response fund, which is set to be established using next year's surplus tax revenue.
The People Power Party, however, has criticized the proposal to use the future response fund for fire department support as a "patchwork fix."
bigroot@heraldcorp.com
