Park Sun-mi, Hanam City Council Budget Committee Chair: "Precious Resources Used to Improve Citizens' Quality of Life"

Chairman Park: "More important than flashy achievements is embracing citizens in hardship"
Increasing budget for recovery, overcoming, and happiness, reducing populist spending

"There are many areas to spend on, but tax revenue is insufficient, so we will ensure that citizens' taxes are not wasted."

Park Sun-mi, Chairperson of the Budget and Accounts Special Committee of Hanam City Council. Provided by Hanam City Council

Hanam City in Gyeonggi Province submitted a 2025 budget proposal totaling 1,011.146 billion KRW to the city council last month. This is the largest budget ever and the first time since the city’s establishment in 1989 that the budget has surpassed 1 trillion KRW.

Regarding the review of this budget proposal, Park Seon-mi, Chairperson of the Budget and Accounts Special Committee of Hanam City Council (People Power Party, District A), stated the principle of "reducing populist budgets and expanding budgets for recovery, overcoming challenges, and happiness."

Chairperson Park said the direction for next year’s budget review is to "conduct deliberations that can serve as a catalyst for restoring people’s livelihoods and developing the local economy," adding, "It will not be a simple belt-tightening review, but rather a review that boldly reduces slack and unnecessary waste while properly allocating the budget to places where it must be spent."

Chairperson Park emphasized, "Spending money is more important than earning it," and said, "As the economy becomes more difficult, the role of finance is more crucial than ever, so we will do our best to ensure that precious resources are used to improve citizens’ quality of life and pioneer Hanam’s future." The following is a Q&A with Budget and Accounts Committee Chairperson Park Seon-mi.

- How do you evaluate the budget formulation?

"The outlook for our economy next year is not rosy. Hanam City’s financial situation is also not bright. We need to secure insufficient resources through national and provincial subsidies, but with the government maintaining and strengthening its fiscal austerity policy, it is expected to be difficult for local governments nationwide to secure national funds. Although Hanam has surpassed a 1 trillion KRW budget for the first time since its establishment, financial demand is increasing and available resources are not abundant. Moreover, due to the ongoing economic downturn, high inflation, and difficulties in securing tax revenue, the outlook for next year’s revenue is bleak, making it a desperate situation where 'selection and concentration' is inevitable. Therefore, the review of next year’s budget proposal is more difficult and requires wisdom. The 2025 budget submitted by Hanam City to the council is 1,011.146 billion KRW (general account 913.7 billion KRW, special account 97.4 billion KRW), which is 77.9 billion KRW (7.16%) less than the final 2024 budget (3rd supplementary budget). The executive branch has shown signs of thoughtful efforts to reduce habitual and inefficient projects considering the difficult financial conditions and to efficiently allocate limited resources to areas such as transportation infrastructure expansion, culture and tourism, childcare, and education."

- What are the key points and directions for budget review?

"Since local government resources are limited, allocation issues are inevitable. We plan to thoroughly examine whether the budget includes detailed and substantial support for socially vulnerable groups and the underprivileged, and whether swift and practical livelihood stabilization measures for self-employed people, small business owners, and SMEs are included. At this time, budget allocation for citizens who are struggling and having a hard time is more necessary than flashy and brilliant achievements. The budget review will focus on increasing budgets for recovery, overcoming challenges, happiness, and living-related and social vulnerable protection, while rigorously scrutinizing unnecessary and poorly designed projects. We will also carefully examine budgets related to demographic changes caused by aging and low birth rates, carbon neutrality achievement, and climate crisis response, boldly adjusting incorrect projects and actively reviewing projects necessary for citizens."

- The timing of the administrative audit was changed from June to November. What are the expected effects?

"Since the 9th council members convened in July 2022, they have discussed and reviewed changing the timing of the administrative audit. By conducting the administrative audit in November, when the annual budget is finalized and the next year’s budget is prepared, we agreed that it maximizes the advantage of evaluating the executive branch’s budget execution status in real time and more clearly confirming the appropriateness of budget formulation. Through ordinance revision, the administrative audit timing was changed from June to November. Since administrative accounting operates on a yearly basis, conducting the administrative audit before reviewing the next year’s budget can compensate for the shortcomings of the June audit’s mid-term evaluation nature and enhance efficient auditing and the local council’s function of checking and supervising the executive branch."

- What is the plan for operating the Budget and Accounts Committee?

"The purpose of preliminary review by standing committees is to examine each department’s budget to improve resource utilization efficiency and review expertise. We will respect the opinions of each standing committee as much as possible when reviewing the budget. Especially, the 9th council is composed equally of ruling and opposition parties with a 5:5 ratio. We will demonstrate the power of cooperation through communication with ruling and opposition council members and the executive branch, collecting and coordinating diverse opinions."

- Lastly, a message to the citizens.

"Based on my experience as the chairperson of the council’s Operations Committee in the first half and my activities in the Autonomy and Administration Committee and Urban Construction Committee in the second half, I will conduct budget reviews with a broad perspective that sees the forest rather than just the trees, aiming to develop Hanam and enrich the lives of its citizens. Until the final approval of next year’s budget at the 3rd plenary session of the 2nd regular meeting of the 336th council on December 19, I will carefully review policies and projects repeatedly and lead rational budget deliberations."

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