NAMYANGJU — Choi Hyun-duk, mayor of Namyangju in Gyeonggi Province, visited the National Assembly to seek political support for expanding metropolitan rail networks and easing the city's welfare spending burden.
Choi handed a policy proposal covering five local priorities — including livelihood, transport and regulatory reform — to Kwon Chil-seung, policy committee chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea, the city said on the 8th, referring to a meeting held the previous day.
The proposal calls for shifting home- and facility-based long-term care benefits for older adults to the central government, reflecting the city's rail projects in the fifth national railway network plan and the metropolitan transport implementation plan, and easing standards for farming convenience facilities and ancillary facilities at experience and healing farms inside greenbelt zones.
Choi first asked for relief from the fiscal burden local governments bear under long-term care benefits for older adults. He said the current structure, under which local governments cover the costs when medical benefit recipients become eligible for long-term care benefits, should be revised. He proposed either reclassifying the function as a central government responsibility or expanding state funding.
He also stressed the need for wider metropolitan rail coverage. To meet transport demand rising from large-scale housing development, he asked for cooperation in reflecting in national plans the extension of new Great Train Express (GTX) lines D, E, F and G to Namyangju, along with extensions of subway lines 3, 6 and 8.
Easing greenbelt rules was another request. Choi asked that installation standards for farming convenience facilities and ancillary facilities at experience and healing farms within the zones be relaxed to fit conditions on the ground, reducing inconvenience for farmers.
Choi Dae-ho, mayor of Anyang and chairman of the Gyeonggi Province Council of Mayors, also attended the meeting. Participants discussed concerns that ordinary grant transfers to local governments could shrink under a future response fund the government is establishing, as well as ways to widen local fiscal autonomy. If increases in internal tax revenue are transferred to the fund as set out in the 2027 government budget proposal, next year's ordinary grant transfers are expected to fall below earlier projections.
"Surging welfare demand and large-scale transport infrastructure expansion are tasks that basic local governments cannot handle with their limited revenue alone," Choi said. "If grant transfers are also reduced by the creation of the future response fund, the burden on local finances will only grow heavier." He added, "I ask the party to actively review Namyangju's proposals and lead the way toward genuine self-governance and balanced regional development."
