Anseong City Accelerates Follow-up Measures for Disaster Zone Designation with 'Full Effort for People's Livelihoods'

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park Chan-hyeok] Anseong City held an emergency press briefing on the 23rd regarding the recovery and support for massive snowfall damage in the city, explaining the snowfall damage support plan and people's livelihood stabilization measures.

Mayor Kim Bo-ra stated, "In response to the massive snowfall damage from last month, we mobilized all administrative resources for recovery support, including deployment of snow removal equipment and personnel, coordination with related agencies and on-site inspections, emergency reserve fund allocation, operation of an integrated support center, and requests for special disaster area designation," and announced that "damage of 177.4 billion won from 6,972 private facilities including farms and livestock operations in the city has been confirmed."

She added, "Our city was proclaimed a special disaster area on the 18th, and we have secured a total of 33.7 billion won in heavy snow disaster support funds from national, provincial, and city budgets. We will implement swift and detailed support targeting small merchants as well as agricultural, livestock, and forestry sectors."

The specific support plan includes △3.6 billion won in disaster support funds for small merchants (10 million won per person, targeting 360 people) △10.8 billion won in agricultural sector disaster support funds (3 million won or more per person, targeting approximately 2,500 farms) △10.7 billion won in livestock sector disaster support funds (6 million won or more per person, targeting approximately 680 farms) △570 million won in forestry sector disaster support funds (1 million won or more per person, targeting approximately 100 farms) △8 billion won in other support funds for public facilities and others.

Additionally, as part of additional support budget for heavy snow damage, the city has secured a total of 3.8 billion won including △1.9 billion won in Gyeonggi Province emergency reserves and emergency recovery funds, △1.2 billion won in special transfers from the Ministry of Interior and Safety △700 million won in Anseong City emergency reserves to be allocated to emergency repairs and demolition support for livestock facilities, farm equipment loans and demolition support, and recovery support for small merchants and sports facilities.

Meanwhile, the city council rejected the local bond issuance plan at the Special Committee for Deliberation on Ordinances on the 27th of last month. Accordingly, on December 4, the city submitted a revised budget of 1.4943 trillion won by applying maximum available resources. However, on December 19, the city council decided to hold the next year's main budget citing requests for establishing disaster support projects.

In response, the city empathizes with the city council's demands and establishes active people's livelihood stabilization measures while pursuing 10 billion won in local bond issuance. The city will divide projects into budgeted and non-budgeted items, implementing △expansion of local currency incentives and public delivery app support △expansion of special guarantees and secondary support for small merchants △support for vulnerable classes' living stability during winter △support for equipment and manpower for farming households affected by heavy snow △expansion of fiscal expenditure and swift fiscal execution △swift processing of permits and refunds for local tax overpayments △temporary exemption of citizens' burden fees and simplification of disaster-affected building demolition reporting procedures.

In addition, the city plans to request the government and Gyeonggi Province to ease loan standards for farming households affected by heavy snow and provide additional special transfers and special adjustment funds. The city also plans to implement diverse measures for people's livelihood stabilization, including prioritizing support for farming households affected by heavy snow when implementing various subsidy projects.