The Executive Yuan yesterday said that it welcomed a proposal by opposition lawmakers to increase the NT$50 billion job-creation bill but that the money should be distributed to counties and cities rather than townships.
"There's definitely room for further negotiations over the changes opposition lawmakers proposed today as long as the changes are not intended to trade political favors," Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
The government's stance is clear: the money has to be allocated in accordance with the needs of counties and cities, Lin said.
"In other words, they won't get any money unless they prove that they have a need and present proposals for the public projects," Lin said.
Lin made the remarks after Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Yu had asked Wang on Sunday to convey to the opposition lawmakers the Cabinet's stance on the issue and solicit their support for the bill.
During yesterday's meeting, opposition legislative whips agreed to increase the NT$50 billion bill to either NT$53.9 billion or NT$58.4 billion. They also proposed that the Cabinet redirect resources to fund the project and that the budget could not be exempted from the legal limits on public debt.
While the pan-blue legislative caucuses favor the NT$53.9 billion proposal, Wang is scheduled to meet with opposition legislative whips again tomorrow to discuss the matter further with the hope of reaching a final consensus.
If the parties fail to reach a consensus, a showdown over the two job-creation budgets appears inevitable.
The KMT legislative caucus also plans to discuss the two proposals tomorrow.
Under the Cabinet's plans, NT$8.5 billion out of the NT$50 billion would be at the disposal of the central government, NT$2.3 billion is slated for the Taipei and Kaohsiung special municipalities and the remaining NT$39.2 billion would go to other local administrations.
The KMT and PFP insisted that NT$8.4 billion out of the NT$39.2 billion should be distributed directly to townships.
Whereas the pan-blue camp says that DPP administrations would be the prime beneficiaries of the funds, the ruling DPP believes that the proposal by the pan-blue camp is a scheme to attract votes.
Last December, the Executive Yuan approved the NT$20 billion project to create public-service jobs and the NT$50 billion public-construction program with the hope of boosting the economic growth rate to 3.52 percent and lowering the unemployment rate to below 4.5 percent this year.
Together the projects are expected to create 115,000 jobs. Each project will last for one year.
The Cabinet had wanted the projects paid for with extraordinary budgets, which would exempt them from legal limits on the amount of money the government can borrow. Opposition parties, on the other hand, want the two projects listed in supplementary budgets to keep public debt under control.
Although the legislature conditionally approved the NT$20 billion bill, it left the funding of the program to be raised with additional budgets.
The legislative budgetary committee also completed the review of the NT$50 billion project but the proposal failed to pass its second reading.
Lawmakers want the Cabinet to fund the project with additional budgets and borrow money if necessary. This debt will be exempted from the legal limits on the amount of money the government can borrow.
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