hankyoreh

By Shin Seung-keun, Staff Writer

An analysis of the 3 yearly budgets consecutively railroaded by the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) has revealed that Lawmaker Lee Sang-deuk, who managed to secure some 179 billion Won ($156.4 million) in budget funds for his constituency, has secured almost 1 trillion Won in budget money for his constituents in the three years since the launch of the Lee Myung-bak administration.

In the 2009 budget, railroaded by the ruling party on Dec. 13, 2008, the first year of the Lee administration, some 437 billion Won were allocated for Pohang, Lawmaker Lee’s constituency. At the time, the government greatly expanded spending on social overhead capital as part of an “economic stimulus” during the global financial crisis. Lee boosted spending for Pohang by 95 percent by winning budget money for projects like the Ulsan-Pohang Highway (36 billion Won), an entry road to the Yeongil Industrial Complex (24.3 billion Won), and a double-track tram line linking Pohang and Samcheok (85.5 billion Won). This has led to controversy over whether these are “Elder Brother Budgets,” as Lawmaker Lee is the elder brother of President Lee Myung-bak. The 50 billion Won allocated for Pohang harbor, which made it into the final budget despite and agreement between the ruling and opposition parties to cut it, has become a symbol of the “Elder Brother’s Power.”

In the 2010 budget, too, passed by the National Assembly on Dec. 31, 2009, Pohang received more than 400 billion Won. As the budget was passed by ambush on the night of Dec. 31 amidst severe confrontation over the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project budget, the scale of this “Elder Brother Budget” was not precisely calculated.

However, Pohang City and local media like the Yeongnam Ilbo reported on Oct. 4, after the Lee government submitted the New Year’s budget to the Assembly, that current projects totalled 418.2 billion Won, including 102.1 billion Won to build a port on Yeongil Bay, 48.2 billion Won for a bypass road for the Pohang National Road, 80 billion Won for the Ulsan-Pohang Highway project, 70 billion Won for construction of the Pohang to Samcheok railroad and 50 billion Won for double track tram along the southern East Sea coast., while new projects got 17.7 billion Won, including 8.7 billion Won to build a highway from Pohang to Samcheok and 6 billion to remove the remaining oil from the sunken oil tanker Gyeongsin.

At the time, the Yeongnam Ilbo praised the results as the product of work by Pohang official, including Mayor Park Seung-ho, with the support of Lawmaker Lee and Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Committee chairman, Lawmaker Lee Byung Suk, two of Pohang’s representatives in the National Assembly.

In the course of ramming through this year’s budget, the ruling party cut child rearing subsidies, which in his negotiating group address GNP Chairman Ahn Sang-soo had promised for the lower 70 percent of income earners, due to the increase in defense expenditures. Moreover, GNP floor leader Kim Moo-sung and the Lee government repeatedly pledged that it would be impossible to create new social overhead capital budgets out of consideration of financial health.

This year, too, however, the “Elder Brother Budget” proved an exception. The budget for Pohang was 135.0 billion Won, more than the 122.3 billion Won added to the defense budget due to the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. Social overhead capital budget expenditures for Pohang alone totaled some 134 billion Won, including 2 billion Won for the Ocheon-Pohang road, 70 billion for the Pohang-Samcheok railroad, 52 billion Won for the Ulsan-Pohang tram and 10 billion for the Ulsan-Pohang highway, and accounted for 22.5 percent of the 595.5 billion Won increase in social overhead capital spending. Of these, the Ocheon-Pohang road and Pohang-Samcheok railway projects were not in the original government budget bill.

The GNP has also moved to sooth the sore feelings of Buddhists regarding the reduction of the templestay budget by 6.3 billion Won, despite promises by the GNP Chairman Ahn Sang-soo, with pledges to punish those responsible. Within the GNP, however, lawmakers are wondering who did this, while asking amongst themselves why Lawmaker Lee seems to be stronger than the GNP floor leader.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]