[Editorial] Help Regional Gov'ts Pay Their Legislators

Regional governments are hurriedly trying to find ways to come up with money to pay their legislators since starting this year legislators are paid salaries and that means budgets two to three times what they used to be. Nationwide it will mean between W150 to W200 billion, so the change will be a major burden for provincial and city governments that have very little financial independence to begin with.

When the program was first adopted last June many expressed concern precisely because of the poor financial standing of these governments. The national government did nothing about that for more than half a year, then at the end of 2005 it announced changes in certain ordinances that make regional governments responsible for paying all of the difference. These are governments that have a hard enough time making ends meet as it is, and as things stand they will have to divert budget funds from projects like paving farming roads and building senior citizens' centers. You wonder whether voters will accept having their legislators and city council members paid with money that was supposed to go to the public welfare and local development.

The standards for determining how much legislators should be paid are full of problems. The ordinances stipulate that each regional government is to form review committees and decide salaries by themselves, so is highly probable that there will be disparity between regions based on their respective financial standings. There is also nothing to keep elected officials from competing over which legislative body pays the highest salaries, without regard to local circumstances.

The idea of paying legislators realistic salaries in order to provide for more knowledgeable and qualified legislatures is of course a good one. If there is better oversight it could in the long run have an effect far more valuable than what is paid, by preventing budgetary waste and corruption. However, the national government has to take into ample consideration that a considerable number of regional legislatures do not have enough to pay their members with the revenue taken in by their local governments. We hope the national government listens to the view of local governments that it should set reasonable minimums and ceilings on how much regional legislators can be paid, and then only gradually give them the autonomy to determine pay levels for themselves over time. It should follow up the revisions to the relevant ordinances with financial support with consideration for the issue of financial independence, so as to keep alive the whole idea behind adopting the new program.

The Hankyoreh, 1 February 2006.

[Translations by Seoul Selection]