Election of Song Jaehyeok as Chair of the Seoul Metropolitan Council Budget and Accounts Committee (Comprehensive)

Chairman Song ranked 2nd in the first vote among first-term Democratic Party budget committee members the day before but won the final vote against Assemblyman Jeong Jin-cheol 12 to 11... Elected with 79 out of 85 votes at the Seoul City Council plenary session starting at 2 PM on the 15th

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Song Jae-hyuk, a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Council (Democratic Party, Nowon 6), was elected as the chairperson of the Budget and Accounts Committee, which reviews the nearly 59 trillion won 2021 budget of Seoul City and the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education.

The Seoul Metropolitan Council (Chairman Kim In-ho) held a plenary session from 2 p.m. on the 15th and conducted a vote for the election of the Budget and Accounts Committee chairperson to review next year's Seoul City budget, electing first-term member Song Jae-hyuk.

A total of 85 council members participated in the vote that day, with Councilor Song receiving 79 votes to be elected as chairperson.

Immediately after being elected, Chairperson Song said, "I will carefully oversee next year's Seoul City budget."

Chairperson Song, a former president of the student council at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, served as the head of the Nowon District Service Corporation, chairman of the Nowon Solar Power Cooperative, and executive director of the Education Welfare Foundation 'Education and Future' before being elected as a Seoul Metropolitan Council member.

Chairperson Song emphasized that although the Bank of Korea initially forecasted this year's economic growth rate to increase by 2.3%, it revised the forecast in August to -1.3%, a 3.6% decrease from the original estimate. Private consumption growth also decreased by 3.9% compared to the previous year, and while new employment was usually around 300,000 annually, it is expected to decrease by 130,000 this year, highlighting that COVID-19 is pushing not only the national economy but also the regional economy into crisis.

Regarding the 2021 budget, Chairperson Song noted that while an increase in property tax revenue is expected due to the realization of official property prices, some tax revenues such as local income tax are expected to decrease due to worsening corporate performance. He expressed concern that tax revenue prospects due to COVID-19 are not bright. He hopes that the economic downturn caused by COVID-19 will not lead to a decrease in next year's tax revenue, but since Seoul City's resources are based on citizens' taxes, the possibility of reduced tax revenue cannot be excluded. Therefore, he stated that a wise choice must be made between 'fiscal stabilization' and 'expansionary fiscal policy' in budget formulation.

In particular, next year, national subsidies may be increased for reasons such as COVID-19 prevention, livelihood support for low-income vulnerable groups, and management support for small business owners and micro-entrepreneurs, which is expected to increase fiscal demand. However, since Seoul City has secured resources through expenditure budget restructuring to respond to COVID-19 and has also consumed a significant portion of available resources such as surplus funds, it is anticipated that Seoul City's fiscal capacity for next year may not be sufficient.

Therefore, Chairperson Song emphasized that in difficult fiscal conditions, he will work with the Budget and Accounts Committee members to review the budget so that not a single won of citizens' taxes is wasted, fulfilling the duty of citizen representatives entrusted by Seoul citizens and the role of fiscal watchdogs.

Meanwhile, Chairperson Song was ranked second in the first round of voting among first-term Seoul Metropolitan Council members of the Democratic Party the day before, following Councilor Jung Jin-chul (Songpa), but won the final round by 12 to 11 votes to be elected.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.