Gyeonggi Province Announces Draft of Second-Term Coalition Agreement…"Youth Allowance and Free School Meals" Key Issues

The Democratic Party in the Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly disclosed the key policy tasks to be included in the second-term coalition agreement on the 16th. The Democratic Party clearly expressed its commitment to introducing "Gyeonggi-style youth allowance" as its first priority task.

Democratic Party Floor Leader Park Seung-won said, "Unlike Gyeonggi Province's 'Youth Passbook' for low-income working young people, it is planned to target job seekers in preparation. We are reviewing various allowance payment methods, including support for academy tuition and civic organization activities."

The Democratic Party decided to expand the provincial government's cost-sharing ratio for school meals (free school meals), which has remained controversial, to 25 percent or higher, the national average. This would require approximately 170 billion won. The provincial government's budget transferred to the Provincial Office of Education for free school meals this year is 23.7 billion won.

Floor Leader Park has repeatedly emphasized through a press conference at the end of June and other occasions, "Other metropolitan local governments nationwide share costs through free school meals ordinances, but Gyeonggi Province does not. I will make sure this is implemented without fail."

"Securing special adjustment transfer payments (policy implementation funds provided by the governor to cities and counties) proportional to the Democratic Party's seat ratio" is also an issue.

Floor Leader Park said, "It is not desirable for the governor to provide discretionary budgets as the provincial assembly's portion, and it is also inappropriate to provide special adjustment transfer payments to cities and counties through creative auditions. We must share special adjustment transfer payments with the Vice-Governor for Social Integration and spend them based on field-focused needs."

This year's special adjustment transfer payments amount to approximately 300 billion won. Considering the Democratic Party's seat ratio (72 out of 127 assembly members), the Democratic Party's claimed share of special adjustment transfer payments is approximately 170 billion won.

The Democratic Party also included "withdrawal of the Supreme Court lawsuit on Seongnam City's three free welfare projects" as a key task.

The provincial government filed a lawsuit at the Supreme Court on January 18 seeking an invalidation of budget decisions related to Seongnam City's three free welfare projects, including youth dividend, free school uniforms, and free public postpartum care centers.

At that time, the Democratic Party in the provincial assembly countered, "The lawsuit was filed by Governor Nam Kyung-pil despite the opposition of the Vice-Governor for Social Integration, who was dispatched by the opposition party, as part of the opposition's domain. Given the serious damage to the spirit of coalition politics, we will comprehensively review the coalition agreement unless the lawsuit is withdrawn."

The Democratic Party will conduct negotiations with Gyeonggi Province and the Saenuri Party from the 19th to the 25th to draft the second-term coalition agreement. Gyeonggi Province and the Saenuri Party plan to announce their coalition tasks around the 19th.