Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday urged the opposition parties to stop politicizing the issue of local government funding.
The Legislative Yuan is scheduled to vote on Tuesday on a Cabinet-proposed motion that would veto amendments to the Law Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures that would expand local government funding.
"It's become extremely difficult for the Cabinet to explain the true motive of the veto motion since it's been so highly politicized," Yu said while inspecting the Cabinet-level Council for Cultural Affairs (
In fact, what the Cabinet wants is very simple, the premier said.
"We'd like to take off the dress and make necessary adjustments to it because we find that it's poorly-designed and doesn't fit us at all," he said. "You simply cannot make appropriate adjustments to a dress when you're still wearing it."
Yu also called on opposition parties to back the Cabinet's motion.
"Let's all look at the issue from a professional perspective," he said. "The last thing we want to see is family discord."
If more than half of the 225 legislators vote against the Cabinet's request, the amendments will go into effect three days after they are promulgated by the president.
But if the Cabinet wins, it has pledged to propose a more "transparent and reasonable" formula to redistribute tax revenues to local governments.
If the legislature fails to reach a final decision by Wednesday, the amendments become invalid.
As part of the Cabinet's efforts to gain support for its position, Yu is scheduled to have lunch with 25 county commissioners and city mayors today at the Hsin Yi Club (聯勤信義俱樂部) in downtown Taipei.
And tomorrow he will visit the legislative caucuses of the KMT, DPP, PFP, Taiwan Solidarity Union and independent lawmakers.
On Friday, Yu compared the allocation of government revenues to that of family assets.
"It's important and necessary to listen to what each and every sibling has to say instead of listening to only the big brother," he said, referring to the Taipei City Government, whose mayor, Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), had championed the amendments.
The KMT, which supports the amendments, invited its county commissioners and city mayors to attend a forum yesterday afternoon to discuss the Cabinet's veto motion.
The party said it will not decide until Monday whether to punish defiant members for failing to vote against the veto motion.
Meanwhile, Yu's recent whirlwind tour of 12 Cabinet agencies has irked some Cabinet officials, who said that they did not have much time to prepare for Yu's visits.
In response to the complaints, Yu asked Cabinet members to bear with him because he is eager to learn as many things as possible.
"I've never been the premier before and I'd like to familiarize myself with everyone and everything as soon as possible," he said.
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