Gwangju City Council Cuts Next Year's Budget by 200 Billion Won, Faces Criticism for Excessive Retaliatory Deliberations

Main Budget Cut by 208.982 Billion Won with No Increase: An Unprecedented Reduction

Drought Relief, K-Beauty Globalization, Startup Support Projects Disrupted

Kang Ki-jung: "Retaliation for Rejecting Petty Budgets, Citizens Suffer"

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[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] In Gwangju Metropolitan City, 200 billion won has been cut from next year's main budget, inevitably causing setbacks in ongoing projects.

Amid a power struggle between the council and the executive branch, the budget review resulted only in cuts without any increases, raising concerns that the council's actions may have gone beyond its primary role of checking and monitoring the executive branch to excessive disciplining.

According to Gwangju City and the City Council on the 16th, the Budget and Accounts Special Committee finalized the general and special account revenue and expenditure budget for next year on the 14th.

From the originally submitted budget of 7.2535 trillion won across 29 departments and bureaus, 208.982 billion won was cut.

Among the cuts were 143.35613 billion won across seven items, including reducing the long-term unexecuted urban park creation budget from 40 billion won to 24 billion won, and a reduction of 82.3 billion won in the special account transfer to the Urban Railway Construction Headquarters.

Of the 305.8 billion won budget related to Urban Railway Line 2, 82.3 billion won was cut, and the financial support for the city bus quasi-public system was reduced from 90 billion won to 10 billion won.

The 390 million won for the 5.18 Memorial Site Sanctification Project, 150 million won for the relocation and exhibition of 5.18 dispatch equipment, and 1.2 billion won for the creation of an Asian food tourism premium hub space were all cut.

The 1.6 billion won budget for improving the brightness of old streetlights was also cut, making it impossible to replace broken streetlights due to lack of alternative funds. The 1.822 billion won for the Deoknam Water Purification Plant Dongbok System Emergency Water Pipe Project was also entirely cut.

The shuttle train operation cost between Gwangju Songjeong Station and Gwangju Station was halved from 1.5 billion won to 750 million won, and the 34 million won budget for installing public unmanned bicycle ‘Tarangkke’ stations was completely cut.

To prepare for drought damage, 19 billion won for Hwangryonggang water intake and water wheel rental costs, and 5 billion won for bottled water purchases, totaling 24 billion won, were all canceled.

The entire 990 million won for globalizing K-Beauty was cut, and although the city requested the Budget and Accounts Committee to reinstate 4.5 billion won cut in the council’s standing committee for the Youth Startup Festival (500 million won), regional unicorn nurturing program (1 billion won), and startup testbed demonstration support (3 billion won), the request was rejected.

With the Gwangju City budget for next year being cut repeatedly without any increases, major ongoing projects such as drought recovery are facing setbacks, and the damage will inevitably be borne by the citizens.

There are voices suggesting that the massive budget cuts stem from the executive branch’s refusal to accept the council’s so-called ‘note budgets’?petty local constituency projects?leading to retaliatory budget reviews.

In fact, Mayor Kang Kijung sharply criticized the council for drastically cutting the budget after the executive branch rejected the budget for constituency projects, while the council expressed discomfort at Mayor Kang’s attitude, which seemed to view them as merely inserting ‘note budgets.’

This is not the first time such issues have arisen. Since taking office, Mayor Kang has repeatedly emphasized that unnecessary budgets and routine group support budgets will not be allocated, and that the so-called ‘note budget’ requested by city council members is a practice that must be changed.

In August, during the supplementary budget review, the council also cut the entire 100 million won budget for the feasibility study of the hydrogen tram project, a key pledge of Mayor Kang. At that time, the council stated that setting a budget without building public consensus on the hydrogen tram was inappropriate.

Following the supplementary budget and the main budget review for next year, the significant cuts to budgets for ongoing projects have led to criticism that the council is excessively applying its role of oversight and checks.

In response, the council stated, “The budget cuts were not due to the inclusion or exclusion of note budgets but because it was difficult to find a compromise, resulting in an unprecedented budget review without any increases. The city council, which has the authority to cut budgets, upheld principles.”

Mayor Kang criticized, “Cutting most executive branch projects because note budgets were not included is a retaliatory budget cut, for which the council bears full responsibility, and the damage will be passed on to the citizens. Our city will not abandon the passion for startups, the will to renew the Mangwol-dong Cemetery, or the commitment to grow the K-Beauty project.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.