[Asia Economy (Seongnam) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] As Seongnam City in Gyeonggi Province shifts to a 'quasi-budget system,' damage to public welfare is becoming a reality. Accordingly, Seongnam City is also considering the activation of the local government head's 'preemptive disposal authority' to minimize harm to residents.
The preemptive disposal authority is an emergency budget execution measure exercised by the head of a local government to urgently address necessary matters to protect residents' lives and property when the approval of the budget bill is delayed.
Due to the current quasi-budget deadlock, Seongnam City has indefinitely postponed the 'Winter Vacation University Student Administrative Experience Training Project,' which was scheduled to start on the 2nd. This is because the city council's deadlock prevented the allocation of the budget, resulting in the failure to secure approximately 240 million KRW in project funds.
The city had previously selected 210 university students, prioritizing low-income households such as recipients of the National Basic Livelihood Security and heads of households in the next lower income bracket, to participate in a 33-day administrative experience from that day until February 17. The selected students were scheduled to begin their administrative experience training with their first day of work on the 2nd.
However, as the 2023 budget was not approved by December 31 of last year, the city notified the selected participants that the project would be postponed that night. The project was planned to provide a daily wage of 35,190 KRW for 3 hours of work per day, 5 days a week.
The city is also facing the risk of halting the first phase of this year's public work project targeting low-income groups and employment-vulnerable individuals aged 65 and older due to the failure to secure the budget.
Seongnam City planned to conduct the public work project in three phases over four-month periods this year, starting the first phase on the 9th for 425 people (a total of 1,275 person-times). However, it failed to secure the entire budget of approximately 6.38 billion KRW for all three phases of the public work project.
In response, Mayor Shin Sang-jin of Seongnam City expressed his position on the quasi-budget crisis that day and urged the city council to promptly approve the 2023 budget. The deadlock in the city council's budget approval is due to conflicts between Seongnam City and the city council over the youth basic income budget.
Mayor Shin criticized, "Holding the entire 3.4406 trillion KRW budget hostage over the youth basic income budget of only 3 billion KRW is a clear act of neglect of duty that sacrifices the livelihoods of 920,000 Seongnam citizens solely to achieve political gains."
On the other hand, the Democratic Party in the city council countered, "Youth basic income has been implemented in all 31 cities and counties in the province, and it is a matching project with a 70:30 ratio of provincial to city funds, receiving 7 billion KRW in provincial support. There is a supporting ordinance, but only Seongnam City has not allocated the budget for 2023, so we ask that the budget be reflected even in the supplementary budget."
Due to the quasi-budget crisis, Seongnam City’s new investment projects and ongoing projects have been halted, and budgets for senior job projects, veterans' honor allowances, subsidies for private organizations, and free school meals, which should be paid from the beginning of the year, cannot be executed on time.
A city official stated, "The council must approve the budget as soon as possible to reduce damage," and added, "We will explore various ways to ensure that the livelihoods of ordinary citizens are not harmed."
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