EXCLUSIVE "People Power Party opposes" vs "Democratic Party only seeks 1 billion won"…Conflict over restored daycare budget
"Did you see? Out of 167 Gyeonggi Province assembly members, not a single People Power Party member supported us."
After the 2.7 billion won daycare support budget for Gyeonggi Province passed through the provincial assembly after many twists and turns, a tense standoff has now erupted between the Democratic Party and the People Power Party over credit for budget restoration.
According to the Gyeonggi Province Assembly on the 12th, the assembly passed an amended second supplementary budget bill at the main plenary session of the 394th regular session on the same day, which restores 21.6 billion won in livelihood budgets including 2.7 billion won in childcare-related budgets for daycare center operating support and teacher welfare improvements. It passed with 108 votes in favor, 20 opposed, and 7 abstentions out of 135 members present.
Controversy erupted immediately after the plenary session ended.
Democratic Party Rep. Jang Kyung-im (proportional representation) of Gyeonggi Province approached the chairperson and members of the Gyeonggi Province Daycare Center Association who were observing after the plenary session and stated that not a single People Power Party member voted in favor of passing the budget, explaining that "(at the Democratic Party general meeting before the plenary session) this was achieved with 137 out of 144 Democratic Party members raising their hands."
The People Power Party is protesting this. They argue that they did not oppose the daycare budget restoration, but rather cast opposing votes on the supplementary budget because the Democratic Party unilaterally reduced the total livelihood budget restoration size that had been agreed upon by both ruling and opposition parties.
In particular, the People Power Party claims that the 2.7 billion won daycare budget was actually their original proposal.
Kim Sun-hee, a People Power Party assembly member representing Yongin District 6, said: "We did not oppose the 2.7 billion won daycare budget, but rather opposed reducing the 42.9 billion won livelihood budget restoration size that both parties had agreed upon to the 200 billion won range."
Yun Chung-sik, vice chairperson of the Budget and Accounting Special Committee from the same party, also claimed: "The Democratic Party initially proposed only saving 1 billion won, but the People Power Party has consistently proposed saving all 2.7 billion won."
Earlier, the provincial assembly's Budget and Accounting Special Committee had reached consensus on restoring 42.9 billion won in livelihood budgets. However, after negotiations between Democratic Party representatives and the provincial administration on the same day, the restoration amount was reduced to the 200 billion won range, prompting immediate backlash from the People Power Party.
The 2.7 billion won daycare support budget was included in the 42.9 billion won proposal on which both parties agreed, but was absent from the 20.2 billion won plan presented by the administration during the day's negotiation process and was finally reflected following afternoon negotiations.
Baek Seung-ki, chairperson of the Budget and Accounting Special Committee from the Democratic Party, said: "I received a notification from Representative An Gwang-ryul the previous day that 42.9 billion won was confirmed as the final plan by adding the 2.7 billion won daycare budget to the existing 40.2 billion won. Today, the 20.2 billion won presented by the administration did not include the daycare budget, and I understand it was reflected in the subsequent final consultation process."
Regarding the controversial statement in question, Rep. Jang said: "(The intended meaning of that statement was) that the 2.7 billion won daycare budget restoration could have been possible with just the votes of our Democratic Party members, even without the 22 votes from People Power Party assembly members," and added: "I am very grateful that People Power Party members came and supported us during the process, but I was disappointed because at the end, it appeared as if the People Power Party was the one who approved the final budget."
She continued: "I even heard that when the daycare budget was set up, all other budgets were cut," and "I believe that all assembly members from both ruling and opposition parties worked together to preserve the early childhood budget."