Daejeon trims marriage grants, older rider bus aid on budget squeeze

Daejeon is cutting the cash grant it pays young married couples and capping what had been free bus travel for residents 70 and older. The city says a worsening budget crisis leaves it no choice.

The cuts land in the city with the highest marriage rate in the country.

The marriage grant for young couples falls from as much as 5 million won per household to 3 million won ($3,500 to $2,100), the city said Tuesday. Under the old cap, each spouse could claim 2.5 million won. Free bus travel for residents 70 and older, which has carried no limit, will be capped at 30,000 won a month, or 360,000 won a year, from next year.

"I agonized over reducing support for young people and benefits for the elderly, but given the overall scale of our finances, the adjustment could not be avoided," Daejeon Mayor Heo Tae-jeong  said. "The money saved will be redistributed to essential welfare for an aging population and to youth policies that people can actually feel."

Daejeon issued 580 billion won more in local bonds by the end of 2025 than it did in 2022, and this year's budget shortfall alone has passed 540 billion won. The city has settled on "a shift to future investment through fiscal reform" as its fiscal direction.

Both programs had been rated among the benefits residents felt most directly. The marriage grant, which the city began paying under the previous administration in 2022, has been credited with helping lift Daejeon's marriage rate to the top of the national table.

Huh returned to the mayor's office on July 1 after unseating Lee Jang-woo, who had beaten him four years earlier and whose administration created the grant.

Daejeon's marriage rate has swung sharply in just two years, according to Ministry of Data and Statistics figures. In 2023, the city recorded 3.6 marriages per 1,000 people, below the national average of 3.8. By 2024 it had jumped to 5.6, above the national average of 4.4, and last year it widened the gap further, hitting 6.1 against a national average of 4.7.

That national rate — 4.7 in 2025 — is itself a recovery, matching where it last stood in 2019. Daejeon's 2025 figure, by contrast, is higher than the national rate has been since 2014, when it last hit 6.0.

The population has grown with the marriage rate. Daejeon added 1,572 residents over 2025, according to Ministry of the Interior and Safety registration figures. It was the city's first annual increase since 2013.

Daegu published research in June finding that its own free transit program for older residents had stimulated the local economy. Daegu introduced the scheme in July 2023 for residents 75 and older, who ride city buses, including services to Gyeongsan and Yeongcheon in North Gyeongsang, and the subway free of charge.

Daejeon has also scrapped eight capital projects worth a combined 525.9 billion won. They include a 302.6 billion won park beside Daejeon National Cemetery, a 49.8 billion won observation tower on Mount Bomun and a 29 billion won wooden bridge at Hanbat Arboretum.

Another 29 large projects have been shelved indefinitely, reclassified for long-term review until the city's finances improve. Among them are a second municipal art museum at 175 billion won, a dedicated concert hall at 329.5 billion won and the purchase of three-section articulated buses at 18.5 billion won.

"We need alternatives for the projects that are being halted or scaled back," Kim Seok-hwan, a member of the Jung District Council in Daejeon, wrote on Facebook.

Heo has cast the overhaul as a redirection of money rather than a withdrawal of it.

"This fiscal overhaul was an unavoidable decision for a sustainable future for Daejeon," the mayor said. "The money we save will go into setting up a body to oversee AI strategy, into growing advanced future industries, into housing and startup support for young people and into building a safety net for residents."

BY KIM BANG-HYUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]