![Incheon Mayor Park Chan-dae speaks at a press conference July 10 addressing the city's worsening fiscal situation. [Incheon City]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/07/21/news-p.v1.20260721.b2a295689a964f9eaf264e2c05e2f736_P1.jpg)
The city of Incheon is off to a difficult start under Mayor Park Chan-dae, as the administration moves to end fare support for out-of-city passengers under the "Incheon i Bada Pass" ferry program — following its earlier suspension of cashback payments under the "Incheon e-eum" local currency scheme.
The Park administration has already launched fiscal reform efforts in response.
City officials concluded that maintaining the full range of support programs expanded under former Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok's administration had pushed fiscal pressures to a breaking point, and opted for what they described as "sustainable finances over populist handouts."
Starting Saturday, Incheon will suspend Bada Pass fare subsidies for passengers from other cities and provinces. The move comes after ridership on coastal ferry routes jumped sharply following the program's launch, draining the budget faster than projected.
However, support will continue as before for island residents, Incheon citizens, people with hometown ties to the islands, and military personnel visiting family members on duty.
Support programs scaled back one after another — driven by fiscal crisis
The decision marks the second major support program cutback in quick succession, coming after the city halted Incheon e-eum cashback payments on Thursday.
While each move appears on the surface to reflect individual budget shortfalls, analysts say both are tied to a broader fiscal normalization policy the Park administration has been pursuing since taking office.
Shortly after his inauguration, Park launched a fiscal and budget reform task force to conduct a comprehensive review of hidden financial liabilities and ongoing projects.
The city has determined that it is already carrying a substantial fiscal burden from the various programs initiated under the previous administration.
The previous administration had budgeted 258.1 billion won ($174.4 million) for Incheon e-eum this year — about 100 billion won more than last year.
However, the city expects the budget to run out entirely, as policies were expanded ahead of the June 3 local elections without securing sufficient funding.
On top of that, essential project costs not reflected in this year's main budget alone amount to 644.1 billion won. Including ongoing projects, the additional budget the Park administration will need to cover during its term is estimated at around 1.4 trillion won.
Total fiscal burden reaches 5.5 trillion won
The total fiscal burden, including fund repayments, amounts to approximately 5.5 trillion won.
The city has also made clear that it can no longer sustain the practice of covering budget shortfalls through municipal bond issuance or borrowing.
The Bada Pass program has seen its costs jump as well, driven by rising ridership and higher fuel surcharges on ferry routes. Even after suspending support for out-of-city passengers, the city estimates it will need an additional 6.8 billion won in funding for this year alone.
City officials say restructuring the program is a better long-term path to reducing the burden on residents than plugging budget gaps with debt.
'Sustainability, not expansion, comes first in welfare'
The latest measures signal more than just the removal of tourist discounts — they point to a fundamental shift in how the city intends to manage its finances.
Under the previous administration, a series of resident-friendly support programs — including the Incheon e-eum expansion and the Bada Pass — were rolled out in succession, but surging demand caused costs to grow faster than anticipated.
Ultimately, keeping the programs running required a continuous injection of additional funds, a dynamic that has been identified as a key factor undermining fiscal health.
The Park administration has put forward a fiscal philosophy that "blindly expanding support programs is not the answer — operating within sustainable limits serves residents better in the long run."
Residents feel the pinch — political costs unavoidable
Even so, the tangible benefits available to residents will inevitably shrink.
With the Incheon e-eum cashback suspension now followed by the Bada Pass cutback, some have raised concerns that "support programs are disappearing one after another under the new administration."
Particularly, the Bada Pass — introduced to boost tourism — has seen its eligibility narrowed in less than a year, raising questions about policy continuity, observers note.
The city, for its part, maintains that keeping all support programs at their previous levels is simply not realistic given the current fiscal situation.
Success of fiscal reform hinges on winning public support
Experts say fiscal normalization is an unavoidable task, but that securing public understanding will be the key to its success.
How convincingly the city can explain to residents that scaling back support programs is not merely a cost-cutting exercise — but a deliberate choice to restore fiscal health and preserve capacity for future investment — will determine whether the policy ultimately succeeds, analysts say.
Incheon says it will continue restructuring its finances while maintaining essential welfare services and public programs directly tied to residents' daily lives.
"Rather than repeatedly borrowing to cover short-term budget gaps, improving the city's underlying fiscal condition is what will benefit residents over the long term," a city official said. "We will focus our administrative efforts on running a sustainable city government built on sound finances."
gilbert@heraldcorp.com
