Abstract: At present, the comprehensive implementation of budget performance reform has become a breakthrough in the profound reform of government governance; it is also an inevitable requirement for the improvement of the modernization of national governance capacity. In 2020, COVID-19 is spreading around the world, and the impact of COVID-19 on China’s economy is increasing. As an important measure of counter-cyclical fiscal policies, the local special debt has become a direct force to stimulate economic growth. However, with the increase and expansion of the special debts in recent years, the performance management and risk prevention and control of the special local debts are becoming significantly important. At present, investment demand across the country has continued to rise. In many places, projects have been launched in a hurry, and there has been a trend of herd phenomenon. There are such outstanding problems as“idling”of the special debt funds, inflated returns, incomplete information disclosure, and weak supervision, leading to frequent hidden risks on the investment in special debts. At present, the counter-cyclical fiscal policy has entered the“window period”, then how to think calmly about the special debts, how to strengthen the performance management of special debts starting from the bottom line requirements of“preventing risks and stabilizing expectations”, how to establish a dynamic early warning mechanism against the special debt risks, and how to strengthen the disclosure mechanism of special debt information and forge“sunshine debt” have become important issues that need to be resolved urgently.

Key words: COVID-19, local special debt, performance management, risk pre-warning mechanism