Even though Seongnam City Council passed the ‘Youth Basic Income’ ordinance, it was difficult due to demands for reconsideration and reduction of provincial funding.

(Seongnam = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Woo-seong = The 'Youth Basic Income' ordinance was passed in three years by the Democratic Party of Korea at the Seongnam City Council in Gyeonggi Province, but the project was put in jeopardy as Seongnam City's request for reconsideration coincided with Gyeonggi Province's notification of a reduction in provincial funding support.

Seongnam City Council approved the 'Seongnam City Youth Basic Income Payment Ordinance' proposed by Democratic Party Rep. Yoon Hye-sun at the special plenary session held on the 7th.

In the vote, all 18 Democratic Party members, the majority party out of 32 seats, voted in favor, and all 14 People Power Party members voted against, so it was passed with 18 votes in favor and 14 against.

The ordinance that passed the plenary session contains provisions to pay 250,000 won per quarter and up to 1 million won per year in local currency to 24-year-old youth living in Seongnam City.

However, immediately after passing the ordinance, Seongnam City issued a press release and announced that it would request a reconsideration from the city council.

According to the Local Autonomy Act, the head of an organization must request reconsideration within 20 days from the date of receiving the ordinance, so the city plans to go through the formal request process within this month as soon as the agenda is handed over.

The problem is that even if a request for reconsideration is made, it is difficult to lead to an actual reconsideration.

For a reconsideration agenda to be passed, a majority of the registered members must attend and more than two-thirds of the members present (22 if all members are present) must agree, but the Democratic Party (18 seats) alone cannot achieve a quorum for the decision.

According to the Enforcement Decree of the Local Autonomy Act (Article 69), the city council must submit a request for reconsideration to the plenary session within 10 days (excluding adjournment or adjournment periods) from the date of receipt of the request for reconsideration.

However, it is expected that the Democratic Party, concerned about the ordinance being rejected, will delay the submission of the bill as much as possible.

There are only two city council sessions remaining this year: the first regular meeting in October and the second regular meeting in November.

To make matters worse, Gyeonggi Province's plan to reduce its share of financial resources was notified that day.

This afternoon, the province notified Seongnam City of its plan to change the ratio of provincial and city funds for next year's youth basic income project from '70% provincial funds and 30% city funds' to '30% provincial funds and 70% city funds.'

If the changed standards (30% provincial funds, 70% public funds) are applied, the budget burden that the city must bear will increase significantly, which is bound to become an obstacle to the resumption of the project.

The city predicted that the city's burden would be 6 billion won out of the total project cost next year, which is estimated at about 8.5 billion won per year.

Mayor Shin Sang-jin made clear his opposition to the project, saying, "Rather than uniformly supporting limited financial resources, we will focus on areas that young people actually need, such as jobs, housing, welfare, and education, and expand opportunities for them to grow and become self-reliant."

Currently, among the 31 cities and counties in Gyeonggi-do, there are two local governments that do not pay youth basic income: Seongnam-si and Goyang-si.