Miaoli County Commissioner Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌) yesterday asked the Executive Yuan for financial assistance, saying the county is unable to pay its employees’ wages this month.
Hsu said he met with Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) in Taipei to ask for a bailout of NT$10 billion (US$320.2 million), but that the premier rejected it.
“[Mao] made it clear that [the county] cannot go to him and ask for money every month because there would be no end to it,” Hsu said.
Photo: CNA
“[Mao] asked the county government to first present a financial reform plan on spending cuts and debt repayment,” said the commissioner, a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The county is in a “deep financial hole,” Hsu said, accusing his predecessor, Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻), a KMT member, of “being over-extravagant.”
Liu was at the center of several controversial land development projects, including the infamous seizure of houses and farmland in Dapu Borough (大埔).
“I do not know how much the Executive Yuan would approve [out of the NT$10 billion request for financial support],” Hsu said, apologizing to civil servants who will not be able to receive their salaries.
Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said the premier convened a meeting with Hsu, Secretary-General Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎), Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和), Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Shih Su-mei (石素梅) and other officials.
“Immediate aid for the county government was not discussed, as the meeting focused on financial restructuring and reform, and the Miaoli County Government was asked to submit a plan before a request for bailout might be granted,” Sun said.
According to the Executive Yuan, the county had an annual income of about NT$22 billion and expenditure of NT32 billion, resulting in a deficit of NT$10 billion.
Sun added that “NT$17 billion of the expenditure were payments for construction projects and retention money.”
The Executive Yuan suggested that the county borrow money from banks, and the central government would use the county’s regular allocation from the central government to repay the banks, he said.
Sun added that the Executive Yuan had already given the county government about NT$3.1 billion in January and another NT$300 million this month.
Hsu said the county needs about NT$1.2 billion to pay civil servants’ wages and pensions on Wednesday, of which NT$400 million has already been advanced by the central government.
“We still have an NT$800 million gap to be filled,” he said.
According to a Next Magazine report in May, the county government has accrued a debt of NT$64.8 billion, a NT$44.6 billion jump from NT$20.2 billion during Liu’s nine-year governance.
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