Choo Mi-ae meets with firefighters and directly apologizes for her 'financial straw' remarks

(Suwon = Yonhap News) Reporter Choi Chan-heung = Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae met with firefighters' labor union officials on the 20th and directly apologized for the 'firefighting financial straw' remark.

After holding a press conference in front of the Gyeonggi Provincial Office this afternoon, Governor Chu met with firefighter union officials, including Kwon Young-gak, head of the National Civil Service Workers' Union Fire Department Headquarters, and Gyeonggi Branch Manager Park Jin-gyu, at the office of the provincial office and conveyed these thoughts.

Governor Chu said, “I sincerely and wholeheartedly apologize to the firefighters who were hurt by my careless use of the wrong words.”

He continued, “I could not apologize sufficiently because I felt that the fact that my story was brought up in front of a sudden big accident was not appropriate for the place and situation,” and “I once again apologize to you all with all my heart.”

Governor Chu explained the process of preparing a plan to expand firefighting finances, which served as the background for his remarks, and emphasized his will to improve the system.

He said, "Shortly after I took office as governor, the head of the fire department came to visit me and learned about the fire department's financial situation, which made no sense. I began to look at the fire department's financial problem before the province's financial crisis, and when I received the work report, I realized that this crisis was not a problem that could be solved by cutting spending, but a structural problem."

He continued, “I asked about improving the system to solve the problem, and the idea was to convert the local education tax for tobacco consumption tax, which is set to expire (at the end of this year), to the local resource facility tax for firefighting,” he explained. “I suggested that we make a proposal like this as soon as possible, and proposed it to the city/provincial governors’ council and the president.”

The plan proposed by Governor Chu is to redirect a portion (43.99%) of the local education tax for the tobacco consumption tax, which is scheduled to expire at the end of this year, into the firefighting local resource facilities tax and use it to support firefighting labor costs, etc. Currently, amendments to related laws have been proposed.

Gyeonggi Province predicted that through this, firefighting resources would be expanded by 1.5 trillion won over four years.

Governor Chu said, “I sincerely hope that the central government will open the way to invest in firefighting as part of its finances and raise our voices together,” adding, “Once again, I feel great weight for the sacrifice of the late Kim Jin-seok, and I ask you to believe in his sincerity to ensure that his death was not in vain.”

Regarding this, fire union officials said, "We hope that the apology the governor spoke of will go towards resolving the troubles of firefighters on the scene," and added, "The truth about Fire Commissioner Kim Jin-seok's death-on-the-duty accident must be thoroughly investigated, and manpower needs to be increased and treatment improved to prevent further deaths in the line of duty."

Previously, Governor Chu caused controversy by saying, "Firefighting is like a financial straw that causes the biggest headache," referring to local government financial issues and the budget for national firefighters during the Gyeonggi Province government audit by the National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee on the 13th.

On the 17th, after visiting the funeral of the late Fire Commissioner Kim Jin-seok, who died in a factory fire in Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do, to pay his respects, controversy arose again when he said, "I would like to express my deep regret if the message was conveyed differently than my intention, and since you are asking for an apology, I sincerely apologize."