Local governments must raise their own funds to maintain stability.
The Ministry of Finance of China announced that the public security budget for 2024 is 227.662 billion yuan, an increase of 1.44%. Compared with the 7.2% increase in military expenditure, the increase in stability maintenance expenditure is much lower than the increase in military expenditure. According to many grassroots people in China, the central government's fiscal revenue has decreased and most of the stability maintenance fees have been suspended. Local governments have to "adapt measures to local conditions" and raise their own stability maintenance funds.
At the second session of the 14th National People's Congress of China, the "Report on the Implementation of the Central and Local Budgets in 2023 and the Draft Central and Local Budgets in 2024" submitted by the Ministry of Finance of China showed that defense expenditure was 1.66554 billion yuan, an increase of 7.2%; Public security expenditure was 227.662 billion yuan, an increase of 1.44%. The previous year , in the "Draft Budget Report" of the Ministry of Finance of China, public security expenditure was 208.972 billion yuan, an increase of 6.4% over 2022.
In contrast, this year's growth in stability maintenance funding dropped sharply by nearly five percentage points. In this regard, Mr. Zhang, a resident of Jiang'an District, Wuhan City, who has been detained by police for stability maintenance countless times due to decades of petitioning, told this station that the decrease in the increase in stability maintenance fees is closely related to the decrease in the central government's fiscal revenue. He said that the central government’s funding for stability maintenance is seriously insufficient, and now it is up to each district, county government and sub-district office to solve it on their own: “The central government has allocated less funds for stability maintenance, and instead has local finances allocating 20% to 40% of their revenue for stability maintenance, and street offices are responsible for 20% to 40% of the office's total income is used for stability maintenance. For example, if a sub-district office has 50 employees, only two or three people are eligible to enjoy (reimbursement of) stability maintenance fees, and the other 40 or so people cannot enjoy (reimbursement of stability maintenance fees). ), just use these two or three people to act as imposters.”
Three years of epidemics have cost huge amounts of money, and funding for stability maintenance has been reduced.
During the epidemic period from 2021 to 2023, the annual growth rates of China’s stability maintenance fees were 0.7%, 4.7%, and 6.4% respectively. Previously, in 2012 and 2013, China's stability maintenance fees increased by more than 10%.
A former civil servant in Hunan told this station that since last year, many local civil servants have been unable to receive their salaries. As police officers on the front line of maintaining stability, their salaries have been deducted, and their morale has been severely damaged: "Many civil servants basically cannot be paid. As an important force for maintaining social security and stability, the police's salary is not enough now. Didn't they (the police) have funds for maintaining stability in the past? But now they don't have any. Now they call us, and they used to come to us for tea. Eating and taking us on trips is now impossible.”
Commentator Li Ang told this station that this year’s stabilization fee growth dropped to 1.4%, mainly due to China’s economic downturn and the reduction in government tax revenue. However, he believes that, like military expenditures, the government has hidden stabilization expenditures: “This figure we Don’t believe it. The problem now is how to calculate the stability maintenance fee. There are still many hidden and seasonal expenses. Now the government has decentralized power and expanded local organizations. They are the members of the community committee grid. , who manage the residents.”
Save financial expenses and shoulder the cost of maintaining stability at the grassroots level
Li Ang said that in order to solve the shortage of stability maintenance funds, local governments and police often increase their income through fines: "The superiors allocate part of the stability maintenance funds, which are settled by the local governments themselves. It does not belong to the financial allocation, such as the district government. Because this money is not guaranteed, You can only default on the payment first and then reissue it when you have the money. Also, local financial resources partly rely on fines. When the police stop vehicles for inspection, their real purpose is to fine them."
In order to solve local financial problems, local governments will also introduce some "local policies" to increase revenue. A former policeman told this station that local governments will also implement temporary policies, such as increasing fees for businesses and individual merchants.