Gimhae City in South Gyeongsang Province announced on August 21 that it has submitted a supplementary budget plan of 2.83 trillion won for 2026 to the city council, representing a 14.4% increase over the original budget.
This supplementary budget is 356.5 billion won higher than the original budget of 2.48 trillion won. Compared to last year's first supplementary budget increase of 230.3 billion won, this figure reflects a 54.8% surge, indicating a strong commitment to inject funds to counteract the local economic downturn.
In terms of accounting, the general account has been increased by 346.9 billion won (16.7%) to 2.42 trillion won, while the special account has risen by 9.6 billion won (2.4%) to 417.6 billion won. The funding sources include surplus funds from the 2025 fiscal year, increased transfer revenues such as grants and adjustment grants, adjustments in expenditure budgets, and deposits from the integrated financial stabilization fund.
A key component of this supplementary budget is the 'Gimhae Citizen Livelihood Recovery Support Fund,' which Mayor Jeong Yeong-du directed as his first official decision. The city plans to allocate 54.5 billion won entirely from its budget to provide 100,000 won to each citizen without relying on national or provincial funds.
Eligible recipients include all registered residents and some foreign residents, totaling approximately 545,000 individuals. The support will be distributed in a 60-40 ratio using local love gift certificates and prepaid cards to stimulate local businesses.
Additionally, the budget includes measures to revitalize local commercial districts, allocating 28 billion won for the issuance of local love gift certificates worth 1.425 trillion won and an additional 1.6 billion won for small business support programs.
Despite the large budget allocation, the city will not issue local bonds. Instead, it will borrow 16 billion won at a low interest rate of 0.7% from the integrated financial stabilization fund, which has surplus funds from the waterworks enterprise special account.
A city official stated, "We are not halting ongoing projects to borrow funds; rather, we are temporarily utilizing surplus funds that are mismatched in timing from departments that are not executing projects immediately. The borrowed amount will be fully repaid in the next year's original budget."
The budget also includes significant allocations for infrastructure to mitigate the impact of high oil prices and meet essential administrative needs. This includes 5.4 billion won for fuel subsidies for the transportation sector, 6 billion won for public transportation refunds, and 12.5 billion won for improvements to city bus operations. Additionally, welfare budgets have been increased by 81.7 billion won (including national and provincial funds) and 8.9 billion won for cleaning service fees.
Furthermore, to enhance disaster preparedness and local infrastructure, the budget includes allocations for building infrastructure for strategic industries such as future vehicles (3 billion won), improving natural disaster risk areas (5.3 billion won), maintaining small rivers (1.1 billion won), replacing the control panel at the Samjeong rainwater pump station (700 million won), and managing reservoirs and agricultural water (700 million won).
The first supplementary budget plan is set to be finalized after deliberation by the Gimhae City Council from September 1 to 10, with a final decision expected on September 11.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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