2026.10.13. The Fair Economy — Choo Mi-ae, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, faced intense criticism from lawmakers of both parties during her first National Assembly audit on the 13th, over central political remarks, the fiscal emergency declaration, a 1.2 billion-won official residence, a petition for the resignation of 30,775 people, a delay in personnel appointments affecting 1,130 individuals, and other aspects of provincial administration.
Governor Choo attended the parliamentary audit of the Security and Public Administration Committee held at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government building that day and received such criticism.
Park Sang-ung, a lawmaker from the People Power Party, pointed out that Governor Choo Mi-ae had posted eight items related to Kim Ji-yong, the candidate for head of the Central Investigation Agency, and 14 items related to central politics on her social media service (SNS), asking, "Hasn't she thrown aside the household entrusted by 14 million provincial residents to peek at the central political scene?" Lee Gwang-hui, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker on the Security and Public Administration Committee, criticized the notice reducing the matching ratio of provincial funds for local government subsidy projects as "one-sided leadership without communication."
Governor Choo rebutted the criticism of her social media activity by stating, "There is no negligence whatsoever in provincial administration," and explained the controversy over the official residence by saying, "It is a lease, not a luxurious extravagance." Regarding the delay in personnel appointments, she stated, "We will diagnose the sprawling organization, redesign it efficiently, and carry out personnel appointments in January next year after obtaining approval from the provincial assembly."
Shortly after taking office in early July, Governor Choo declared a fiscal crisis in Gyeonggi Province and announced a major cut to project budgets, excluding essential livelihood budgets. This was based on the judgment that while debt increased under the previous administration's expansionary fiscal policy, a revenue base had not been established.
Gyeonggi Province is undertaking expenditure restructuring worth 545.6 billion won by re-examining 1,355 projects from scratch. With project funds for affiliated agencies being cut, some agencies have even expressed concerns about year-end personnel costs. Governor Choo pointed to the tax revenue structure as the root cause of the fiscal difficulties and proposed three major tasks: raising the local consumption tax rate, transferring part of the corporate tax, and converting fire service funding sources. In this process, the budget for the mobility rights of people with disabilities was significantly cut in the supplementary budget, drawing backlash from civic groups, and a press conference was held in front of the Provincial Office on the day of the national audit.
A blame game also erupted between the current and former governors over the cause of Gyeonggi Province's fiscal crisis. Governor Choo has raised the issue of the previous administration's expansionary fiscal policy by mentioning "debt exceeding 7 trillion won" since taking office. In contrast, former Governor Kim Dong-yeon rebutted on September 15, stating, "Expansionary fiscal policy is not a mistake but a responsible choice," and adding, "It is not a fiscal crisis now." The People Power Party faction in the Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly criticized the situation as "effectively a declaration of bankruptcy," and disagreements over the basis for the fiscal emergency declaration were also exposed within the Democratic Party of Korea.
Although Governor Choo has stated that she has been fully devoted to responding to the fiscal crisis over the first 100 days of her term, with almost no on-time departures from work, provincial government officials are complaining of low morale as appointments for about 1,130 senior positions have been frozen for over six months.
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