Chapter 995

In the few days before the Spring Festival, Su Xinghui helped his family buy all the necessary New Year goods and bought a new set of clothes for each of his parents.

In fact, there wasn't much that needed to be bought. This year, Pengjiawan Town distributed quite a lot of benefits, and various fish and meat were divided into dozens of jin, which was completely enough for a prosperous New Year. Su Xinghui mainly bought some melon seeds, peanuts, candies, and the like; these were essential items for the New Year.

With the New Year goods bought, the Su family spent a lively and happy New Year's Eve. How could they not be happy? Life at home was flourishing, getting better day by day. Isn't this what the Chinese people hope for?

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, when Su Xinghui went to pay a New Year's call to Zhang Kaishan's family, while talking with Zhang Kaishan in the study, he brought up the matter of building a park at Zhong Ming Lake.

In Su Xinghui's previous life, building a park at Zhong Ming Lake in Shangjun County was something that happened ten years later. At that time, a very good County Party Committee Secretary came to Shangjun County, and he played a crucial role in the development and urban planning of Shangjun County.

At that time, a deputy to the People's Congress in Shangjun County wanted to buy the land by Zhong Ming Lake to develop a hotel. This deputy had great power and extensive connections; he was a guest of the then-Provincial Party Committee Secretary and a later member of the Politburo. Moreover, he was extremely arrogant and demanded that the then-County Party Committee Secretary approve the land for him.

However, this County Party Committee Secretary was not a person who feared trouble. He felt that building a hotel by Zhong Ming Lake would cause pollution to the lake water, and he was very disgusted with this deputy's behavior—it was too arrogant. Relying on the influence of the Provincial Party Committee Secretary, he actually dared to directly demand that he approve the land for him.

This County Party Committee Secretary felt even more strongly that building a park on this plot of land would have huge benefits for the overall environment and development prospects of Shangjun County. He resolutely rejected the deputy's request and, with great courage, passed the proposal to build a park by Zhong Ming Lake.

At that time, countless people advised him not to offend this deputy, but he still resolutely made this decision. He did not sell this golden piece of land to any commercial real estate developer, but instead, for the overall benefit of Shangjun County, developed it into a park. This was truly great courage!

Strangely enough, after this County Party Committee Secretary made such a decision, he was not retaliated against. On the contrary, that arrogant and domineering deputy was always submissive in front of him and never dared to cause trouble in front of him again. Until the County Party Committee Secretary left his post, he never dared to act up again.

In the current Shangjun County, there was not a single park yet. Therefore, building a park was also very necessary. On this day, taking the opportunity of paying a New Year's call to Zhang Kaishan, Su Xinghui put forward the suggestion of building a park.

After listening to Su Xinghui's suggestion, Zhang Kaishan pondered for a long time and said, "Is it a bit too early to build a park now?"

Su Xinghui said, "Not early at all. Currently, the leisure and entertainment facilities in Shangjun County are really too scarce. After getting off work, ordinary people basically have nowhere to go except watching TV at home. Especially since the two-day weekend system will be implemented this year, how will these two days be spent? The county must also consider this for them."

Zhang Kaishan said, "I have naturally considered this issue, but the funds required to build a park are not a small number. Although the county's fiscal revenue is increasing relatively quickly, expenditures are also increasing very quickly. Various infrastructure needs to be updated, and there is not so much surplus money to build a park."

Su Xinghui said, "In fact, the county does not need to live within its means. In many infrastructure investments, it is entirely possible to carry out financing."

Zhang Kaishan said, "You mean, just like building the Changjiangdaqiao, take out a loan? But the Changjiangdaqiao can collect tolls to repay the loan, while these county infrastructure projects cannot collect tolls to repay the loan. These are real expenditures with no return."

Su Xinghui said, "How can you say there is no return? Once the infrastructure is done well, the investment environment in Shangjun County will get better and better, and more and more enterprises will come to Shangjun County to invest. Won't the county's fiscal revenue increase then? This is a virtuous cycle."

Zhang Kaishan nodded thoughtfully. Su Xinghui's approach was very fresh, and he also felt it made a lot of sense, but he still needed a process to digest and absorb it.

Su Xinghui said, "Building a park has another benefit, which is that it can increase the land price in the surrounding area. After the park is built, the prices of commercial plots in the surrounding area will definitely rise. Zhong Ming Lake is still relatively remote, and not many people live there. Many plots are still in the hands of the government. Selling these plots to developers, wouldn't you be able to immediately recover a large sum of funds? Not only will the money for building the park be returned, but it can also be used for other purposes."

Zhang Kaishan became excited as he listened. He nodded repeatedly and said, "This is a good line of thinking: build the park first, increase the land price, and then sell it to developers. According to your line of thinking, the county's treasury won't be short of money in the future."

Su Xinghui said, "This is the concept of managing a city. As the ruler of a city, you can treat this city as an enterprise to manage. There are many ways to improve the brand value of an enterprise, and building a park is one of the good ways to improve the brand value of a city."

"Managing a city?" Zhang Kaishan felt this approach was too novel.

Su Xinghui nodded and said, "Right, this concept is not common in China yet, but in foreign countries, this is already a relatively mature concept."

Zhang Kaishan nodded and said, "Since you put it this way, I really have to study this. If you have time, come and chat with me and teach me."

Su Xinghui laughed, "You overstate it, Secretary. I have only read a few books and am not very proficient. I dare not say I will teach you; we can only discuss it with each other."

Zhang Kaishan said, "Don't be so polite. Given our relationship, there's no need for you to be so polite just to save my face. I am not a sage who knows everything; there are still many things I don't understand, especially this kind of new concept. You are a young person and accept things quickly. If you understand it, come and teach me. What's wrong with that?"

Zhang Kaishan's broad-mindedness also moved Su Xinghui very much. He said to Zhang Kaishan, "Uncle Zhang, I understand."

Zhang Kaishan laughed, "Xinghui, I also hope to build Shangjun County well as soon as possible. Fortunately, I have you to help me; otherwise, Shangjun County would definitely not have this situation now."

Su Xinghui said, "By the way, Uncle Zhang, the land selling thing I mentioned can only solve immediate needs and cannot be used as a long-term plan."

Su Xinghui did not want Zhang Kaishan to fall into the strange circle of land-selling economy because of his suggestion. Therefore, he must explain this matter clearly to Zhang Kaishan.

Zhang Kaishan was surprised, "Why? I think this is still quite good. Now the central government is implementing the dual-tax system, taking all national tax revenue as state-owned, and local tax revenue is too little. This income from selling land belongs to local fiscal revenue. If the government can sell more land, won't it have more income?"

This cannot be blamed on Zhang Kaishan; it is just that the dual-tax system had only been implemented for one year, and few people could predict some of the consequences produced by the dual-tax system now, and no one knew that the loophole left by the state for local fiscal revenue—land transfer fees—would trigger so many relatively bad consequences in the future.

In this era, everyone is crossing the river by feeling the stones. With income like land transfer fees that doesn't require much worry, who wouldn't want to sit back and enjoy the fruits? Otherwise, why would land transfer fee income account for almost half of all government fiscal revenue in some places later?

Su Xinghui then explained to Zhang Kaishan, "Uncle Zhang, land transfer fees are of course a beneficial supplement to local government fiscal revenue, but they can only be used as a supplement. If land transfer fees are used as the main source of local fiscal revenue, this indicates that the fiscal situation of this local government is not that healthy."

Zhang Kaishan said, "Continue."

Su Xinghui said, "With economic development, land prices are getting higher and higher. In order to increase fiscal revenue, local governments will inevitably find ways to raise land prices. As long as local governments use land transfer fees as the main source of fiscal revenue, land prices will get higher and higher until they reach an astronomical price."

Zhang Kaishan could not help but frown. He himself was also a government official, and he naturally knew some common characteristics of government officials. He knew that if land transfer fees were really used as one of the main sources of fiscal revenue, it would definitely happen that land prices would be pushed up by government officials. And Zhang Kaishan could naturally think of the consequences of land prices being pushed up.

Su Xinghui said, "Uncle Zhang can naturally think of the consequences of land prices being raised, which is that housing prices are gradually raised. One day, they will be so high that ordinary people cannot afford them. At that time, often a house will require a family's lifetime savings. Do you think this is reasonable?"

Zhang Kaishan shook his head, obviously using this to express his agreement with Su Xinghui's words.

Su Xinghui said, "To put it bluntly, this is a kind of plunder of the wealth of ordinary people, and this all stems from the land transfer fee system. And such easily obtained fiscal revenue also directly makes local officials develop lazy governance ideas. They don't think about how to develop industry at all, but only think about how to raise land prices. When land prices and housing prices reach a terrifying height, will there still be room for industrialists at that time?"

What Su Xinghui said were all things that had already happened in his previous life. In his previous life, almost half of China's GDP relied on housing prices to support it. A large entrepreneur's annual profit could not buy a house in a first-tier city. Such a deformed phenomenon was the status quo of Chinese society at that time.