Park Honggeun: "Using Future Response Fund for Fire Service Funding Can Be Considered to Stabilize Local Finances"

Minister of Planning and Budget Park Hongkeun answers lawmakers' questions during the economy-sector review by the National Assembly's Special Committee on Budget and Accounts on Nov. 9, 2026. Photo by Yoon Dongju

Minister of Planning and Budget Park Honggeun said on Nov. 9 that the government could consider using the Future Response Fund to ease the financial burden on local governments for fire services, saying it could be reviewed from the perspective of stabilizing local government finances.

Park made the remarks in response to a question from People Power Party lawmaker Park Jeong-ha at a plenary meeting of the National Assembly’s Budget and Accounts Committee. Park Jeong-ha asked whether he would support using the Future Response Fund for fire service finances.

Park added, “We are discussing how to address fire safety needs, including not only personnel costs in the fire services but also outdated equipment and other related equipment, at the National Assembly level.”

At a high-level meeting between the government and the ruling party on Nov. 8, they agreed to consider providing local governments with around 2 trillion won in central government funding for urgent and essential investment in fire services, as well as ways to further expand fire service funding.

At the meeting, they discussed allocating part of the Future Response Fund, which is scheduled to be established using next year’s excess tax revenue, to the fire service budget.

The opposition countered that using the Future Response Fund to support the fire service budget would be inconsistent with the fund’s purpose, accusing the government of treating it like a private slush fund.

In response, Park said, “I think there may be debate over whether using the fund for fire services is consistent with its purpose.” He added, “The reason we created a local government account within the fund was to supplement local governments’ fiscal capacity.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.