GURI — Shin Dong-hwa, mayor of Guri in Gyeonggi Province, said the city will draft its third supplementary budget of the year as a "negative supplementary budget" centered on spending cuts. The mayor said the city's finances are "in a crisis that could be called a disaster," and plans to rebuild the spending structure from scratch.
"We will carry out a negative supplementary budget with no precedent," Shin said in an interview with The Seoul Economic Daily on the 26th. "There will be a considerable number of budget items cut, and we will also review next year's main budget from square one."
Guri's finances cannot fully cover even essential expenses. The city has failed to reflect the full amount of essential spending in its main budget for three years since 2024, and this year it budgeted for only nine months, leaving a shortfall of more than 30 billion won. More than 10 billion won in repayments is also overdue for the Women's Happiness Center and the Galmae-dong complex office building, which were developed under a trust arrangement with the Korea Asset Management Corporation, or KAMCO.
Of the 212 billion won integrated fiscal stabilization fund, 184 billion won has already been spent, leaving a balance of about 28 billion won. Shortly after taking office, Shin set up a task force on sound fiscal management to secure funding for the supplementary budget and adjust spending.
"Unless tax revenue rises sharply all at once, it will be difficult for the fiscal situation to improve in a short period," Shin said. "Now is the time for fiscal innovation through strong restructuring of expenditures."
The cuts start inside city hall. "I intend to set an example starting with the mayor," he said. "We will cut agency operating expenses and discretionary expenses by 30%." Those items have been trimmed over the past three years, but the reductions will continue. Most staff workshops will be eliminated, and overseas travel expenses will be cut by more than 80%.
The city is considering halving the budget for street lights. "There is a saying that the streets do not get darker even when street lights go out, and we will test that," Shin said.
One-off festival budgets will also be sharply reduced. The city plans to cut at least 100 million won from the 360 million won budget for the Cosmos Festival. By linking the event to Citizens' Day, the city saved on main stage installation costs, but it judges that performance fees approach 200 million won. "What matters is not whether a particular singer comes," he said. "The budget should be built around benefits that citizens can actually feel."
Instead, the city will ask all of its publicity ambassadors to donate their talents. "There is a problem with appointing people as publicity ambassadors and then not giving them a chance to take the stage," Shin said. "I plan to sound out all of them." Publicity ambassadors can be paid up to 1 million won each in appearance fees.
New projects submitted after October will also be cut as a matter of principle, on the judgment that they cannot be completed within the year.
Under the principle of annual budget totality, predictable spending will be included in the main budget, the city said. The city's administrative slogan has not been changed. Citing the fact that the previous mayor spent 200 million won on changing the slogan alone after the 2022 local elections, Shin said, "Changing a slogan does not change how a city is run." The budget for the city newsletter will also be cut by about half.
Social welfare spending, by contrast, will not be touched. "I will make sure that struggling neighbors do not become worse off in the name of budget savings," Shin said. Education and future-oriented areas will instead be strengthened, he said.
As an example of a project that delivers results on a small budget, he cited a citizen participation project called "That's Not Right." Residents send video clips of about one minute showing inconveniences in daily life to a KakaoTalk channel, and the relevant department checks the site and makes improvements. "Improving inconveniences that citizens feel at minimum cost and disclosing it transparently is a good example of the pragmatism that the ninth elected administration pursues," he said.
The city is also pushing to expand revenue. "We have to earn money," Shin said, adding that the city will complete an office lease contract this year for the relocation of Gyeonggi Housing & Urban Development Corporation, or GH. The target for move-in is the first half of next year. The site, the third floor of a Lotte Mart inside the general distribution market, is a five-minute distance from Donggureung Station and is city-owned property, leaving room to adjust rent. "Cutting 100 million won in rent and gaining 10 billion won in local taxes is pragmatism," he said.
The city is taking the same view of the dispute over construction cost sharing for Line B of the Great Train Express, or GTX. Guri is the only local government along the route without a station, yet it is required to shoulder about 37 billion won in construction contributions.
"Demanding construction contributions of 37 billion won despite the absence of a station may violate the principle of legal reservation or related statutes," Shin said. "We cannot accept the decision not to stop at Galmae Station." He added, "We will work to have a feasibility review conducted in line with the designation of the Taereung Country Club district, and if additional service at Galmae Station is not accepted, we are also closely reviewing filing a constitutional petition."
As a medium- to long-term plan, he proposed a Joseon history and culture zone. He cited the presence in the city of Donggureung, the leading site among the Joseon royal tombs designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site, spanning 600,000 pyeong. The tombs hold Taejo Yi Seong-gye, along with Munjong, Yeongjo and Seonjo.
Shin also proposed combining the site with 90,000 pyeong of land behind the same mountain used by the 57th Division for reserve force mobilization. The land was decommissioned in 2011. "This is not an era in which reserve forces are called up to fight a war," he said. "If it has been decommissioned, we will have it returned so Guri residents can use it."
If the return goes through, the city plans to build a permanent performance venue and a hanok village, and to link them with a K-hotel. The aim is to use a hanok village to work around conditions that make high-density development difficult because of Donggureung. The city is also reviewing expanding into the wooded area behind the site to create the largest hanok village in the greater Seoul area.
The mayor also signaled a reorganization of the city government. Departments handling routine work will be considered for slimming down, while organizations related to future generations and young adults will be expanded. "If we do not act now, we will face a bigger fiscal crisis and future generations will end up bearing the pain," Shin said. "Through strong restructuring of expenditures, we will achieve fiscal innovation and make Guri a city that shines and where citizens are happy."
