Gyeonggi Province and Provincial Office of Education's Next Year's Budget 'Late Approval'... 33.8104 Trillion vs 22.3345 Trillion

Gyeonggi Provincial Government Gwanggyo New Office Building

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province's budget proposal for next year was passed late, exceeding the legal deadline.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Council held the 7th and final plenary session of the regular meeting on the 17th and approved the 33.8104 trillion won scale of the next year's Gyeonggi Province main budget proposal.

This is an increase of 31.4 billion won compared to the 33.779 trillion won submitted by the province. It is also the largest ever, increasing by 206.8 billion won (0.6%) compared to this year's main budget (33.6036 trillion won).

The next year's main budget newly includes 6.6 billion won for the Opportunity Income Project for Artists and 1 billion won for the Pilot Project for Opportunity Income for the Disabled. Opportunity income is a key project of Governor Kim Dong-yeon, which compensates those who create value in society but do not receive rewards by providing income support for a certain period.

Artists (holders of the Certificate of Artistic Activity issued by the Korea Artists Welfare Foundation) will receive 1.2 million won annually, and disabled persons (2,000 people) will receive up to 50,000 won per month depending on their participation in health promotion and social activities.

Youth welfare project funds such as Youth Basic Income (97.8 billion won), Youth Gap Year Program (4.1 billion won), and Youth Ladder Program (1.9 billion won) were also mostly approved.

The Youth Ladder Program supports overseas study programs for low-income students and is an expansion and application of the "After You" program (overseas university study for low-income students) introduced by Governor Kim when he was president of Ajou University to Gyeonggi Province.

In addition, the budget for the public discussion project on the establishment of the Northern Special Autonomous Province (1.3 billion won) and the public discussion project for the construction of Gyeonggi International Airport (370 million won), both pledged by Governor Kim, were fully reflected.

Comfort money (5 million won per person) and living stabilization support funds (200,000 won per month) totaling 740 million won for victims of the "Seongam Academy Incident" were also approved, allowing the province to provide independent support starting next year.

Seongam Academy was a facility operated on Seongamdo Island in Ansan from 1942 to 1982 during the Japanese colonial period, forcibly admitting children and adolescents aged 8 to 18 and violating human rights through forced labor, assault, abuse, and torture.

On the same day, the Provincial Council approved the original proposal of the 22.3345 trillion won budget for the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education's special account for education expenses for next year, submitted by the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education.

As part of Superintendent Lim Tae-hee's pledged projects, a budget of 3.2 billion won was newly allocated for operating the International Baccalaureate (IB) education program to nurture future talents.

The entire 7.5 billion won budget for the cafeteria-style meal system, a self-selective meal operation system that allows students to choose the type and amount of food themselves, was also fully reflected.

The Provincial Council, which has an equal number of ruling and opposition members, experienced difficulties during the coefficient adjustment process of the Budget and Accounts Special Committee, exceeding the legal deadline of the 16th for budget approval and extending the session by one day.

The Provincial Council completed all this year's legislative schedules by processing the main budget proposal along with the province's 3rd supplementary budget proposal. The 3rd supplementary budget includes 1.05 billion won for the basic service fee of the GTX Plus, a pledged project of Governor Kim.

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