Mayor Park apologizes for missing Chuseok deadline on livelihood support payment
Gwangyang Mayor Park Sung-hyun has abandoned his campaign pledge to pay each resident 300,000 won ($221) in livelihood recovery support — a high fuel-cost relief grant he promised during the June 3 local elections.
Park held a press conference Monday, saying that after taking office he found the city was running a fiscal deficit of about 65 billion won — what he described as a "negative fiscal situation" — and asked residents for their understanding that the payment would not be made before Chuseok.
"Had I known before the election, it would have been difficult to pledge large-scale new fiscal projects or city-wide support payments," Park said. He added that he would actively explore ways to make the payment this year if additional funding could be secured in the remaining months, and that if that proved impossible, he would look at disbursing the grants starting next year or, failing that, at some point before his term ends.
According to the city's own analysis, paying all 150,000 Gwangyang residents 300,000 won each would require a total of around 45 billion won.
parkds@heraldcorp.com
