On the 28th, the National Assembly's Administrative Safety Committee held a general meeting and passed the supplementary budget plan, which included a new budget of 1 trillion won for local currency (Local Love Gift Certificates), solely by the Democratic Party of Korea. Members of the People Power Party protested against the unilateral handling of the supplementary budget by the Democratic Party and left just before the vote.
Earlier, the Democratic Party single-handedly approved the same supplementary budget plan in the Administrative Safety Committee's budget and settlement fund review subcommittee, while the People Power Party exited during the meeting.
The Democratic Party argues that a budget for local currency should be introduced to revitalize the local economy. In contrast, the People Power Party asserts that budget should not be allocated to inefficient items like local currency, whose effectiveness is uncertain.
Democratic Party lawmaker Wi Seong-gon said, "A budget of 1.4 trillion won related to Onnuri Gift Certificates was organized in the government proposal," and added, "I cannot agree that Onnuri Gift Certificates are a good budget while local currency is a bad budget." Shin Jeong-hoon, a Democratic Party member of the Administrative Safety Committee, argued, "I believe local currency will be a great help to struggling small business owners and self-employed individuals, like a much-needed rain amid a drought."
In contrast, People Power Party lawmaker Jo Eun-hee stated, "Using taxpayer money indiscriminately for political gain is essentially akin to malpractice in corporations," and raised concerns about the potential misunderstanding that allocating cash support budgets to local governments before the presidential election aims to influence the election. She further noted, "Deterioration of fiscal soundness will rapidly increase the burden on future generations and negatively impact economic growth," and suggested that if the Democratic Party truly cares about people's livelihoods, it must engage in in-depth discussions on areas where national funding is urgently needed before discussing the controversial local currency.
Interim Minister of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety Ko Gi-dong said, "Please consider that it is necessary to comprehensively review the characteristics of the supplementary budget submitted by the government regarding the issuance budget for Local Love Gift Certificates."
The budget under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety includes 1 trillion won for local currency issuance support, 20 billion won for public emergency job budget to aid damage from wildfires, and 28.654 billion won for electronic document system informatization, totaling 1.09 trillion won. The supplementary budget under the Korean National Police Agency includes 3.657 billion won for contributions to the Road Traffic Authority, and the supplementary budget under the Korean Fire Agency includes a total increase of 73.86 billion won for spreading excellent firefighting equipment and supporting integrated management and operations of nationwide firefighting helicopters.
The supplementary budget is expected to be finalized and voted on by the budget settlement special committee.
Meanwhile, at the general meeting on that day, an amendment to the 'Basic Disaster and Safety Management Act,' aimed at strengthening support for disaster victims, passed with consensus from both the Democratic Party and the People Power Party. The amendment was prepared to systematically support not only livelihood aid but also recovery of economic activities for residents affected by the large-scale wildfires in the Yeongnam region. It specifies that the 'support for small business owners' included in the current law should be clarified as 'support for the recovery and management stability of facilities affected when small business owners suffer damage.'