(Suwon = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Woo-seong = When Gyeonggi Province announced that it would limit the provincial support rate for city and county auxiliary projects to 'maximum 30%' due to worsening finances, cities and counties in the province, which are about to prepare the main budget for next year, protested, saying it was "passing on the financial burden."
Front-line local governments immediately began a joint response, led by the Gyeonggi Metropolitan City Mayors' Council.
Choi Dae-ho (Mayor of Anyang), chairman of the Gyeonggi City Mayors and County Council, said in a phone call with Yonhap News on the 4th, "I understand the difficult financial conditions of Gyeonggi-do, but most of the matching projects between provinces and cities and counties are directly related to the livelihood, welfare, and livelihood of the common people."
He added, “We are currently urgently collecting related issues and positions from 31 cities and counties in the province,” and added, “We will issue an official position statement at the council level as soon as the analysis is completed.”
Previously, the province held a meeting of city and county vice-presidents the day before and delivered the policy of 'applying a provincial subsidy rate of up to 30%' as the principle for organizing the main budget for 2027.
Accordingly, projects that previously received support of 40-50% of provincial expenses have also seen provincial support reduced to less than 30% from next year, putting them in a position of having to make up for the insufficient budget with the city and county's own resources.
Cities and counties are unable to hide their embarrassment.
There are concerns that the financial pressure will reach its limit as it is difficult to immediately stop building local infrastructure or welfare projects for the public just because provincial support has decreased, and even the company's own tax revenues have decreased due to the economic downturn.
In fact, there are already signs that major livelihood projects in local governments will be disrupted.
In the case of Hanam City, it was concerned about the financial sharing and continuation of the 'Farmers and Fishermen Opportunity Income' and 'Postpartum Care Expense Support Project', which were the province's own projects that had been promoted by matching provincial and municipal fees in a 5:5 ratio.
An official from Hanam City said, "In the case of opportunity income for farmers and fishermen, of which the city shared 300 million won out of the 600 million won project cost this year, we are in a very awkward situation as the province sent an opinion inquiry saying that it will drastically reduce the province's share of the cost to 10% next year." He added, "It is known that support for postnatal care expenses, a representative public welfare project, is also being considered for abolition at the provincial level, so we are closely watching the final conclusion."
It is also pointed out that this measure goes directly against the purpose of the related ordinance revised by the Provincial Council in December 2024 to alleviate the financial burden of cities and counties and improve the customary 30% subsidy rate.
An official from a local government in the province said, “If we only hand over the sharing ratio to the city and county without reducing the project itself, the financial pressure will inevitably increase for local governments with poor finances,” and added, “We will respond to ensure that there are no disruptions to existing projects.”
