Third Anniversary of Special Metropolitan Cities Five Special Metropolitan Cities Push Full Force to Enact Strengthened 'Special Metropolitan Cities Special Act' This Year

[Suwon Ilbo=Ki-ho Choi, Reporter] On the 13th, Yongin Special Metropolitan City, along with Suwon, Goyang, and Changwon—four major cities with populations exceeding one million—will mark the third anniversary of launching as ‘special metropolitan cities.’ Hwaseong became a special metropolitan city on the 1st of last month, bringing the total number of special metropolitan cities nationwide to five.

These special metropolitan cities, which handle administrative demands comparable to metropolitan cities, have consistently voiced that they should be able to autonomously exercise authority tailored to local characteristics to provide better administrative services to citizens.

Accordingly, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety submitted the ‘Special Act on Support for Special Metropolitan Cities’ to the National Assembly on December 27 last year, transferring 26 special administrative tasks to special metropolitan cities.

The foundation for special act legislation was established two years and nine months after the launch of special metropolitan cities, with the catalyst being the ‘23rd Presidential Civil Affairs Forum’ held at Yongin City Hall on March 25 last year. At the forum, the government announced it would expand authority for special metropolitan cities to conduct administration befitting their status by enacting a special metropolitan city support special act. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety then established a task force composed of four special metropolitan cities and the Local Era Committee to draft the special act.

Prior to that civil affairs forum, Mayor Sang-il Lee of Yongin City and city officials conveyed to the Presidential Office and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety that "the citizens of four special metropolitan cities desire the enactment of a special metropolitan city support special act that expands the autonomy of special metropolitan cities, and we ask the government to express its legislative intent on this special act at this forum held in Yongin." The government accepted this request and first expressed its intent to enact the special act at the Yongin forum.

The special act submitted to the National Assembly by the government includes transferring 26 special administrative tasks to special metropolitan cities, encompassing 19 new special provisions such as establishing apartment complex remodeling master plans, issuing construction permits for large-scale buildings of 51 stories or above or with total floor areas exceeding 200,000 square meters, establishing arboretum and garden creation plans, and installing and operating industrial complex planning deliberation committees. It also includes grounds for administrative and financial support from central government agencies for special metropolitan cities.

To ensure systematic support for special metropolitan cities by central government agencies, the bill includes provisions for the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to establish a five-year basic plan, with special metropolitan cities then establishing annual implementation plans to pursue development strategies suited to local characteristics.

However, the legislation lacks provisions guaranteeing special metropolitan cities the legal status and financial and organizational authority commensurate with their position, as they already handle administrative demands at the level of metropolitan governments, leaving some regrets. Mayor Lee expressed the view that gaps should be filled during National Assembly deliberation. The mayor also stated that amendments to the Local Autonomy Act guaranteeing legal status for special metropolitan cities must be made.

The mayor also stated, "The 26 special administrative tasks included in the special act reflect only the results of 22 tasks that completed deliberation out of 80 tasks for which special metropolitan cities originally requested special provisions from the Local Era Committee, so the transfer of authority must be further conducted during National Assembly deliberation."

The city has argued that special metropolitan cities are subject to reverse discrimination in financial support from the government and Gyeonggi Province due to their relatively favorable financial conditions compared to general cities and counties, but the transfer of only special administrative tasks without institutional guarantees for cost compensation or personnel recruitment is problematic. The city's position is that specific support grounds for financial and organizational authority must be explicitly stated in the bill.

At the ‘National Assembly Policy Forum for Enactment of the Special Metropolitan City Support Special Act’ held at the National Assembly Library in October last year, Mayor Lee emphasized: "Until now, we have emphasized the necessity of enacting a special act; now we must enhance the completeness of the legislation by filling in gaps in the special act created by the government."

In 2025, the fourth year since the launch of special metropolitan cities, Yongin City plans to work together with other special metropolitan cities to make efforts to add provisions in National Assembly deliberation on the special act that will further strengthen administrative services of special metropolitan cities.

The city plans to develop efforts to secure the legal status of special metropolitan cities, adjust upward the funding sources for coordination grants, and secure more financial authority such as transferring a certain percentage of acquisition tax to special metropolitan cities.

The idea of transferring part of Gyeonggi Province's acquisition tax revenue to special metropolitan cities was proposed by Mayor Sang-il Lee at the 2023 second-half Regular Meeting of the Korea Special Metropolitan Cities Mayors Council held in Changwon in November last year.

While acquisition tax collected in cities and counties is collected by the respective city or county, it is classified as a provincial tax and belongs to the revenue of the metropolitan government. The proposal aims to transfer part of this revenue to the respective city or county so they can provide better administrative services.

According to an analysis by the Yongin City Policy Research Institute, the acquisition tax collected by Yongin City in 2023 was 581.2 billion won. If 30% of this is created as a new tax category for special metropolitan cities, Yongin City would secure an additional 174.4 billion won in tax revenue to utilize as resources for citizens.

The city plans to make efforts to have such provisions reflected during National Assembly deliberation on the special act.

Mayor Lee said, "Since the reason for creating special metropolitan cities at the metropolitan level is administrative efficiency and improvement in the quality of administrative services, the autonomy of special metropolitan city administration must be strengthened in each sector such as construction, development, urban environment, and transportation, and special metropolitan cities' financial capacity must also be improved. We will pool the strength and wisdom of all five special metropolitan cities so that the special metropolitan city support special act can be supplemented in this direction and the bill can be passed within this year," he said.