지방의회 의원들의 쪽지예산에 관한 연구 -서울시의회 지방교육예산 심의과정을 중심으로 - (A Study on the Pork Barrel Spending of Local Councilors: Focusing on the approval process of local education budget of the Seoul Metropolitan Council)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국정책개발학회
· 수록지 정보 : 정책개발연구 / 21권 / 1호 / 1 ~ 36페이지
· 저자명 : 설인환

초록

쪽지예산의 사전적 의미는 예산심의 과정에서 국회의원들이 예산심사를 맡은 위원들에게 자기 지역구 사업을 예산에 편성해달라고 쪽지로 부탁한 예산을 말한다. 일반적인 의미는 예산안 심의과정, 특히 예산결산특별위원회에서 의원들이 자신의 지역ㆍ민원사업 등을 추가로 끼워 넣는 예산을 말한다. 이것은 의원들이 쪽지에 적거나 원내대표 의원이 의원들의 요구를 집계해서 서류목록(쪽지)으로 예산 심사 소위 위원들에게 전달되는 관행에 대해 붙여진 이름이다.
해마다 우리나라 언론들이 의원들의 쪽지예산을 비난하는 이유는, 사업 타당성검토도 없이 선심성으로 예산 심의과정에 불쑥 끼워 넣고 통과되게 되면, 계속해서 장기간 예산이 투입되므로 예산낭비를 초래한다는 점이다. 또 소위 실세 의원들이 많이 가져가고 힘이 약한 의원들은 그렇지 못해서, 지역구 주민들 간에 형평성 문제도 발생되기 때문이다.
이러한 비난에도 불구하고, 의원들의 쪽지예산 관행은 왜 없어지지 않는 것일까? 개선은 가능한 것인가? 다른 나라들도 그런가? 본 연구는 이러한 의문에 답해보기 위해 대통령제 국가인 미국의회 사례와 내각책임제 국가인 호주 의회 사례를 분석한다. 쪽지예산이란 것이 불가피한 것인지를 살피고, 쪽지예산이 성행하는원인을 분석하기 위해 우리나라 정치․예산제도도 살핀다. 본 연구의 성과는 지방과 중앙을 정치시스템이 같기 때문에 국회의원과 다른 지방의원들의 쪽지예산 연구에 크게 도움이 될 것이다.

영어초록

This study is aimed to examine city councillors’ pork barrel spending during the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s education budget approval, and to explore ways to improve current practice. This study includes 10 years’ data from 2010 to 2020 budget year.
The scope, mean, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation were used to analyze the equity in earmarked spendings. According to the analysis, city councillors’earmark spendings was about one percent of the total education budget, and the members of the subcommittee on Budget accounted about two percent, which was twice as much. In the equity analysis, the coefficient of variation for each year varied from 0.6 to 1.3, which seemed to reveal a considerable inequity, however, the one for the sum of the 10-year data was 0.4, indicating that the level of inequity was not so high in large stands.
It was also found that one of the reasons why city councillors try earmarks lies in the budget system, which bans budget increase or the introduction of new items.
According to an analysis on earmarks in the U.S, members of Congress earmarked around one percent of the discretionary spending every year. It seems that the controversial practice has been continued even though the president has the right of veto and there are strong CSOs such as CAGW monitoring the earmark spendings.
In Australia, earmarking has been an issue relevant to the leadership group rather than individual MPs; they were accused of allocating more funds in specific areas to appeal to marginal seat voters. The Australian government is taking measures to consider MPs in the process of funding school facilities. However, due to the nature of the cabinet system, the budget approval process was so simple that the controversy over earmarks was difficult to find among individual MPs.
Considering the results of the analysis, it is needed to develop and implement new strategies in order to improve the inequity found in city councillors’earmarking practice.
Based on the above conclusion, the following are suggested; First, it is needed to legislate a local ordinance on funding for the minor capital works, which specifies financial support for at least one per year to all schools. Second, since the current two-time notice system of grants is likely to cause supplementary budget and pork barrel spending, it shall be improved to the one-time notice system.
Finally, the Ministry of Education shall give local governments more authority on financial decisions by increasing the portion of general grants and decreasing the portion of special grants.

참고자료

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