Gyeonggi Province Faces New Phase in Interim Budget Crisis and Childcare Turmoil

The interim budget crisis and childcare turmoil in Gyeonggi Province have entered a new phase as the Democratic Party, the majority party in the Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly, decided to allocate the kindergarten Nuri curriculum budget while the province is executing daycare center Nuri curriculum budget through an interim budget.

Kim Hyun-sam, the Democratic Party's representative, held a press conference on the 25th and announced, "To prevent confusion in the current childcare field, we will submit a revised budget bill for the Provincial Office of Education including several months of kindergarten Nuri curriculum budget to the extraordinary session on the 28th for processing."

However, he drew the line by stating that there are no plans to allocate funds for daycare center Nuri curriculum budget, as this should be the responsibility of the central government.

Regarding Gyeonggi Province's budget, the plan is to present the original bill that passed the Budget and Accounts Committee and vote on it together on the 28th.

In response, the Liberty Korea Party issued a statement saying, "If the opposition truly wants to prevent confusion in the childcare field, it must allocate budget for daycare center Nuri curriculum as well," and opposed it by stating, "We cannot accept the opposition's revised budget bill for the Provincial Office of Education."

Governor Nam Kyung-pil also held an emergency meeting and decided to distribute 91 billion won in daycare center Nuri curriculum budget for two months, allocated through the interim budget, to 31 cities and counties by the end of the day, drawing a clear line with the opposition.

Although the Democratic Party, Liberty Korea Party, and Gyeonggi Province have not yet found common ground, analysis suggests this could be a clever solution to resolve the interim budget crisis and childcare turmoil.

A representative of the Liberty Korea Party's leadership said, "If it is impossible to allocate daycare center Nuri curriculum budget in the opposition's revised Provincial Office of Education budget bill due to opposition, then shouldn't at least kindergarten budget be reflected?" and added, "However, in this case, daycare centers should be able to be allocated from the provincial budget."

The intent is for the opposition to accept daycare center Nuri curriculum budget support from the province in exchange for accepting the Democratic Party's revised Provincial Office of Education budget bill that reflects kindergarten budget.

A representative of the Democratic Party's leadership said, "Even if the Liberty Korea Party opposes, we plan to unilaterally process the revised Provincial Office of Education budget bill and the provincial government budget bill (original) at the extraordinary session on the 28th," and added, "If this happens, the interim budget crisis at the province and Provincial Office of Education will end and the kindergarten childcare turmoil for several months can be prevented."

The representative said, "Even if the provincial government's original budget bill passes on the 28th, the interim budget executed by the province on the 25th is irreversible," and explained, "As a result, in addition to kindergarten, daycare centers will also receive Nuri curriculum budget support, so the daycare center issue will be resolved for two months."

A Provincial Office of Education official said, "We will respect the decision of the provincial assembly."

Regarding allegations that the Provincial Office of Education cut and then restored the kindergarten Nuri curriculum budget it originally submitted, resulting in wasted effort, a Democratic Party leadership representative said, "It is meaningful in that we have informed residents that early childhood daycare is a national responsibility."