Cabinet seeks truce on flood budget

The Cabinet indicated yesterday it would consider granting part of the funds requested by Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in the hope of facilitating the passage of a budget for flood-prevention measures at a special legislative session to be held next week.

DPP legislative leader Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), who has helped mediate the issue, told the Taipei Times that the Cabinet would probably pick up the bill for a NT$645 million demanded by Ma for a flood-prevention project.

The amount would be in addition to another NT$350 million the Cabinet previously agreed to give Taipei, according to Ker.

The legislature is scheduled to convene an extraordinary session from Monday to Wednesday to review a special budget proposal worth NT$31.6 billion for flood-prevention measures along the 86km-long Keelung River.

Though generally supportive of the budget, opposition lawmakers have complained that it fails to include NT$1.9 billion that Ma requested.

The KMT caucus, in particular, has branded the exclusion a DPP scheme to thwart Ma's bid to win re-election in December.

Ker yesterday met with Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) after Wang swore in DPP Legislator-at-large Lin Chung-cheng (林忠正). Lin was named to fill the vacancy left by Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳), who recently took over as Cabinet secretary-general.

Wang was quoted as urging the ruling party to take its cue from mainstream public opinion when dealing with the matter.

It is widely believed that the DPP government, if it denies Ma the money, would put its own Taipei mayoral candidate, Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), in a predicament.

Ker said that with the concession, the ruling party hopes to expedite the review of the special budget.

He added that the DPP caucus has issued a top mobilization order for fear that there may not be enough lawmakers to meet the quorum.

Many legislators went abroad after the legislature broke up for the summer recess on June 21.

Ma said he welcomed the goodwill but that he hoped the central government would earmark more money to help the city protect itself from flooding.

Taipei residents deserve the same treatment as their counterparts in other parts of the country, Ma said, noting that the Cabinet has met almost all requests from Taipei County.

But the DPP government has made clear it will not help finance the relocation of the 72-year-old Chungshan Bridge, as President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), during his term as Taipei mayor, preferred its retention.