Mayor meets budget committee chair, ruling and opposition negotiators to push for increases

Incheon Mayor Park Chan-dae delivers remarks at the 2026 Incheon Regional Lawmakers-Incheon Metropolitan City Budget Policy Conference held at the National Assembly on Wednesday. [Incheon City]
Incheon Mayor Park Chan-dae delivers remarks at the 2026 Incheon Regional Lawmakers-Incheon Metropolitan City Budget Policy Conference held at the National Assembly on Wednesday. [Incheon City]

Incheon Metropolitan City has launched an all-out push to secure additional state funding for 2027, coordinating with ruling and opposition party leadership and local lawmakers as the National Assembly's budget deliberations get underway.

Mayor Park Chan-dae visited the National Assembly on Wednesday, holding a series of meetings with Budget and Accounts Committee Chairman Lee Gwang-jae, the committee's negotiators from both parties, and the chairs of key standing committees to request increases for major local projects.

The city is seeking a total increase of 130.9 billion won ($97.6 million) in state funding above the government's proposed budget, spread across 12 projects.

In the administrative and public welfare category, the requests include 49 billion won for administrative restructuring operational support, 11.2 billion won for the Incheon M-Bus service, and 25.9 billion won to raise the national subsidy rate for local gift certificates by 4 percentage points.

In the welfare, labor and fiscal category, the city is seeking 13.2 billion won to cover childcare fees not supported by the central government, 10.2 billion won for costs related to delegated labor inspection duties, and 3.6 billion won to operate a local tax arrears management team. In the industry, environment and sports category, requests include 7.4 billion won to scale up wastewater treatment facilities at I-Food Park, 6 billion won for an AI-based pilot program to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector, and 1.8 billion won to renovate Incheon's dedicated football stadium.

In the research and infrastructure category, the city is requesting 1.3 billion won for design work on a comprehensive emergency training center for the Gyeonggi-Incheon region, 500 million won for a feasibility study on establishing a marine and fisheries industry-academia promotion institute, and 500 million won for the second phase of ecological restoration of Gulpocheon stream.

The government's 2027 budget proposal, submitted to the National Assembly in September, already included 7.09 trillion won in state subsidies for Incheon — a record high.

Before heading to the National Assembly, Park hosted a breakfast budget policy meeting with Incheon-area lawmakers at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday.

At the meeting, Park and the lawmakers discussed projects requiring additional state funding and agreed to maintain close coordination as a unified "Incheon team" until the final budget is approved.

"Increasing state funding at this stage of the Assembly's deliberations is essential for key projects directly tied to residents' lives to proceed without disruption," Park said. "We will work hand in hand with local lawmakers throughout the budget committee review to secure what Incheon rightfully deserves."


gilbert@heraldcorp.com