Opposition delays bills for new jobs

Opposition parties yesterday stifled attempts by the Cabinet to accelerate passage of two job-creation programs, sending the bills to committee for review instead of directly to the second reading.

It appears unlikely, if not impossible, the Cabinet will be able to implement the provisional measures before the Lunar New Year, though the ruling DPP has vowed to push for the measures to be passed before the session ends on Jan. 14.

Meanwhile, TSU lawmakers accused their KMT and PFP counterparts of stalling the review of the budget in an attempt to blackmail Cabinet officials.

Following several rounds of cross-party negotiations, the law-making body ruled to forward the two bills to four committees for review before further legislative action may be taken on them.

The Cabinet had hoped to skip the committee review stage and pass the bills straight to the second reading.

The two job-creation measures, with a total cost of NT$70 billion, aim to provide 115,000 one-year employment opportunities in public construction projects and services.

The KMT legislative caucus again voiced concerns about funding for the bills. The Cabinet wants the measures paid for with "special" budgets, which would exempt them from legal limits on the amount of money the government can borrow.

Under public debt rules, the government can borrow up to 15 percent of its annual budget for various spending programs. Currently, the deficit makes up 14.8 percent of the budget.

"I suggest that the Cabinet pay for the two projects with emergency funds at its disposal and request the funding at issue through regular procedures in the next session," KMT legislative whip Lee Chuan-chia (李全教) said.

"If necessary, we may also consider raising the debt limit in the spring," Lee said.

The two bills will be reviewed on Monday by four legislative committees: economics and energy; home and nation; budget and final accounts; and sanitation, environment and social welfare.

PFP Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) said his party understood the urgency of tackling unemployment but insisted the packages at issue promised no solution.

The second-largest opposition party has slammed the programs as yet another ploy by the DPP administration to woo supporters for the 2004 presidential election with tax dollars.

"By spreading the cost among the public, the DPP government has repeatedly sought to plunder average taxpayers to help support the disadvantaged," Chiu said. "The problem is that things will remain unchanged when the programs expire one after a year."

Legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who has substantial say over how bills pass through the legislature, said he doubted the special funding could be approved before the Lunar New Year.

Wang said he has had trouble resolving disagreements among the legislative caucuses, which completed reviewing only 50 percent of the 2003 budget, leaving more than 500 items awaiting cross-party negotiations.

The TSU caucus, irritated at being passed over during earlier inter-party discussions, said their KMT and PFP colleagues purposely dragged out the budgetary review to pressure Cabinet officials into sharing their right to award public-works contracts.

Legislative whips from the two parties denounced the charge as groundless and threatened legal action to punish rumormongers.

The speaker, seeking to placate both camps, advised against emotional speeches that he feared would further retard legislative efficiency.