Funding for several programs has been left unallocated for October through December. These include care for older adults, support for pediatric emergency care institutions and environmentally friendly produce for school meals.
Gyeonggi Gov. Choo Mi-ae attends a press conference at the Gyeonggi Provincial Office in Suwon on Aug. 5 to declare a financial emergency due to a severe budget shortfall.YONHAP
Gyeonggi Gov. Choo Mi-ae declared a “fiscal emergency” for the province on Wednesday, explaining that the region’s finances have deteriorated to the point that it can no longer sustain even ongoing projects.
The province is “not even in a position to pursue new campaign pledges, let alone maintain projects that are already underway,” she told reporters at the Gyeonggi Provincial Office in Suwon. “The decision to declare a fiscal emergency was one made to set the province’s finances right before it’s too late and to protect the livelihoods of residents and Gyeonggi’s future."
Gyeonggi issued 943 billion won ($662.7 million) in local bonds across three rounds last year, reaching 99.6 percent of its 946 billion won bond ceiling. It also changed the rules for its consolidated finance stabilization fund in May 2025, allowing the provincial government to take 558.8 billion won from multiple funds and funnel it into its general operating budget through a shared account.
Its Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund, once worth 38.4 billion won, now holds 4.4 billion won after 34 billion won was transferred out.
“We got through the immediate crisis by issuing bonds and drawing down various funds — a kind of sleight of hand. But even then, we couldn’t fully put together this year’s budget,” Choo said.
As a result, funding for several programs has been left unallocated for October through December. These include long-term care for older adults at 123.4 billion won; support for pediatric emergency care institutions at 1 billion won; environmentally friendly local produce for school meals at 3.4 billion won; postpartum care subsidies at 8 billion won; school meal subsidies for the provincial education office at 58.4 billion won; family caregiver allowances at 1.4 billion won; crop disaster insurance subsidies at 2.9 billion won; and public management support for city bus operations at 29.1 billion won.
“It’s like a dry field without a single blade of grass left. There’s no more funding to draw on and no room left to put off the crisis,” the governor said.
This file photo, taken in September 2024, shows apartment complexes in Bundang District, Seongnam, Gyeonggi.YONHAP
As countermeasures, she proposed cutting operating expenses for the governor and senior officials, reforming the provincial civil service and overhauling Gyeonggi’s revenue structure.
She also proposed reconsidering or suspending one-off populist events and nonessential projects and reassessing the feasibility and effectiveness of recurring research contracts, outsourcing and agency-run projects before continuing to fund them.
The province also plans to press the National Assembly and central government to expand the local consumption tax, distribute tax revenue from corporate relocations more fairly and ease the burden of excessive local matching funds tied to state-subsidized projects, she said.
“Correcting this will take considerable time and pain,” Choo said. “But I won’t push that pain onto vulnerable residents and ordinary citizens. We will pursue fair fiscal reform by cutting first where it’s unnecessary and asking more from those who bear greater responsibility.”
BY CHOI MO-RAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
