Research On Local Government Debt Risk And Its Governance

Preventing and resolving major risks,maintaining sustained and healthy economic development combined with overall social stability are the top priorities of the three major battles.The debt risk of local government is the most difficult risk among all economic and social risks.It is of great significance to effectively prevent and resolve the debt risk of local governments.Local government debt is like a "double-edged sword",which is conducive to giving play to the macro deployment of the government's "tangible hand",alleviating the practical difficulties of the local government's financial deficit,accelerating the rapid development of local economy and the harmony and stability of society.At the same time,excessive debt will also increase the financial burden and cause debt risks,destroying the credibility of the government,and affecting social harmony and stability.Strengthening the governance of local government debt risk is an important theoretical and practical subject that must be seriously addressed by the current public management discipline.Since the reform and opening up,the rapid development of urbanization,the government's expansion of investment in infrastructure and increased support have been the main reasons for local governments to raise debt.At the same time,the reform of the tax distribution system has reconstructed the financial relationship between the central and local governments.Local governments,especially those at the county and city levels that directly undertake infrastructure construction are suffering from tight financial capacity.In addition,some local government leaders have deviated views on political achievements,and the government investment projects are disorderly,non focused and uncontrolled,which leads to the continuous rise of local government liabilities and even“ thunderstorms ” in government financing platforms in individual regions.The introduction of the new "Budget Law" in 2015 indicates that the development direction of local government debt will transition from a surge to stable prevention and control.How to make a smooth transition is a difficult problem for local governments.Based on the statistics and analysis of the law and trend of the debt of local governments in District D of Taizhou City,Jiangsu Province,and the comprehensive consideration of the current situation of China's macro development and the personalized debt status of District D as a county-level local government,this paper combs out five common problems of the debt governance of local governments in districts and counties: the defects of investment and financing system,the imperfection of financial budget management system,the weak liquidity of platform assets,the small business income,the immature debt supervision system.On the basis of the above research,the paper puts forward the specific countermeasures to control the debt risk of local governments,including: optimizing the macro policy environment,improving the financial system;detailing the territorial responsibilities of local governments,playing the role of market regulation;promoting the market-oriented transformation of financing platform;expanding the investment and financing channels of local governments;strengthening the application of debt risk assessment and early warning results.