Oh Se-hoon, the national power and the National Assembly cooperate together... Jang Dong-hyuk praises finances and says, “We’re one team.”

On the 6th, the People Power Party held a budget policy consultation meeting with Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, a member of the party, at the National Assembly and launched a coordinated attack.

The party's leadership predicted an all-out lending war, saying that the Future Response Fund, which the government had announced to establish, was eating up local government finances, and Mayor Oh joined in, saying that the Lee Jae-myung administration was a 'financial noob administration' that passed the financial burden on to local governments.

Representative Jang Dong-hyuk praised Mayor Oh, saying, "Mayor Oh chose a different path from this administration. Debt was strictly tied to this year's level and the actual business budget for citizens was increased. This is what the People Power Party calls responsible finance."

He went on to say, “The People Power Party and the Seoul Metropolitan Government are one team,” and added, “The People Power Party will work together to achieve the ‘change that has begun, overwhelming completion’ that Mayor Oh promised. The People Power Party at the National Assembly and the Seoul Metropolitan Government will join hands at City Hall to protect the lives of citizens.”

Floor leader Jeong Jeong-sik opened the meeting by saying, "The future response fund worth 162 trillion won to be newly established by the government is a future bankruptcy fund," and added, "Even the financial resources that should go to local governments are being reduced, putting a huge burden on local finance management."

Representative Jeong said, “The public transportation issues proposed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government today, the expansion of disaster prevention infrastructure, care and housing stability for the vulnerable, and strengthening the competitiveness of high-tech industries are the core tasks that the political world must address first to respond to the future.”

At the same time, he pledged, “The People Power Party will do its best to support the policies promoted by the ‘Quality of Life Special City of Seoul’ so that they are not hindered by budget shortages.”

Mayor Oh urged support from the central party, saying that Seoul City's efforts alone are limited in ▲ financial sharing, ▲ improvement of old infrastructure, and ▲ deregulation for housing supply.

He pointed out, "As the government's cash welfare policies such as consumption coupons and subsidies for high oil prices, in addition to the four basic benefits and support for responding to low birth rates, are expanding, the financial burden on Seoul is increasing. Although the tax burden per citizen of Seoul is the highest in the country, government support is at the lowest level."

He went on to point out, "The current government is touting central-local cooperation in words, but it is a 'financial fool's administration' that extremely limits support for local governments even if there is ample financial space such as the Future Response Fund," and added, "I hope that government support will be expanded for the maintenance of old sewer pipes and improvement of subway facilities, which require a huge budget."

In particular, regarding real estate issues, he said, “Various regulations such as relocation loan and floor area ratio are still holding back the maintenance project,” and asked, “Please give us strength to quickly improve the regulations that block the supply of housing, such as easing restrictions on transfer of union member status, raising floor area ratio for private maintenance projects, and raising the loan-to-value ratio (LTV) for relocation loan.”

Rep. Cho Eun-hee, chairman of the Seoul Mayor's Committee, said, "The major national projects for next year requested by the city of Seoul are 10 projects, totaling 1.7874 trillion won, but the government plan is only 790.6 billion won, which is about 1 trillion won short," and emphasized, "No matter which party the mayor belongs to, the budget that is essential for citizens must be handled fairly without political considerations."

At the council meeting on this day, lawmakers including Kwon Young-se, Jo Jeong-hoon, Park Jeong-hoon, Bae Hyun-jin, Seo Myeong-ok, Ko Dong-jin, and Shin Dong-wook, all of whom have constituencies in Seoul, as well as senior vice-president for in-house operations Kim Seung-soo and senior vice-president for policy Kim Mi-ae, also attended the meeting.

Mayor Oh, floor leader Jeong, and other attendees will have lunch in Yeouido on this day and continue further discussions.

It was reported that CEO Jang did not attend the luncheon.