- Per capita budget reaches approximately 24.19 million won… Abnormal structure at the highest level nationwide
- Self-generated revenue depleted, but budget inflated by 284.2 billion won through external transfusions like national and provincial funds
- Heavy focus on cash-like handouts such as rural basic income… Growing concerns over fiscal soundness

Sinan-gun, South Jeolla Province, which has a population of just over 42,000, has surpassed 1 trillion won in annual budget. With the budget per resident well exceeding 24 million won, critics are raising voices against 'tax-driven populist administration,' as the county covers its meager self-generated revenue with national and provincial funds from the central government while pouring a significant portion of the budget into cash-like welfare.

Sinan-gun recently finalized its first supplementary budget for 2026, totaling 1.0211 trillion won, an increase of 284.2 billion won from the main budget. Looking at the financing details of this supplementary budget, external transfer revenues—such as 158.7 billion won in national and provincial subsidies and 50.4 billion won in local government grants—account for the absolute majority. This means the local government has bloated its size using central government subsidies while its own financial capacity to cover its budget has virtually reached its limit.

The problem lies in the expenditure structure of this limited financial resource secured through external funds. Even considering infrastructure maintenance costs due to geographical characteristics, critics point out that the proportion of direct cash handout budgets is excessive. Out of 150.1 billion won allocated to the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sector, Sinan-gun designated a whopping 41.5 billion won under the name of 'Rural Basic Income.' When adding 5 billion won for the agriculture and fishery public interest allowance and 4.2 billion won for the livelihood stabilization subsidy targeting all residents, the scale of expenditures handed out essentially as cash exceeds 50 billion won.

Considering Sinan-gun's regional gross domestic product (GRDP) is heavily biased toward agriculture, forestry, fishery, and public administration, along with a poor industrial base where small individual businesses account for 73%, cash-like support dependent on external tax money is inevitably criticized as pouring water into a bottomless pit. Some voices of concern are also emerging that the county may have compiled populist budgets for the local government head's political achievements while increasing the tax burden on the entire nation under the pretext of attracting population.

While the county stated that it focused on citizen-perceptible projects by efficiently allocating limited resources, warnings continue that the 'showcase 1 trillion won budget' relying on central government subsidies amid a chronic fiscal deficit crisis could boomerang into serious deterioration of fiscal soundness in the future.