After two days of deliberations, the Taichung City Council voted yesterday to shelve a bill to build a branch of the Guggenheim Museum in the city, asking for a renegotiation of the terms of contract and effectively putting off the signing of an initial agreement once again.
While the museum's fate was to have been decided yesterday, the council put off a final vote at Council Vice Speaker Chang Hung-nien's (張宏年) suggestion.
The council asked Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) to renegotiate the terms of agreement stipulated in the initial agreement and discuss possible amendments with representatives of the New York-based museum.
Hu welcomed the council's move, saying that it was "good news." He said he would speak with the Guggenheim Foundation, letting it know that a final decision had not yet been made.
The city council also requested that the contract be published on a Web site for public viewing.
According to several councilors, the contract had been reviewed by several law firms, all of which had pronounced it unfair. They said the foundation had reserved the right to take service fees of up to US$300,000 without prior consent while the city council had no choice but to pay US$8,000,000 up front upon signing the initial contract.
While the Guggenheim bill had garnered wide support in the council during the early stages of its planning, critics yesterday stressed that the museum would come at a steep price that would be left to future generations to pay off. Opposition councilors said the terms of the agreement were unfairly advantageous for the Guggenheim Foundation.
The city has earmarked NT$6.4 billion for the museum's construction while the Executive Yuan has contributed NT$5 billion. Another NT$1.4 billion is to come from the city government's allocations.
In addition, the city government will have to pay royalties of up to NT$1.2 billion to the foundation. The museum's proponents have cited the economic activity and tourism the project is predicted to bring to the city. It has been estimated that the museum could double the number of Japanese tourists visiting Taiwan. The museum would create at least 2,700 jobs and another 870 permanent positions once it opened.
Hu said that after discussing the council's suggestions with museum representatives, he would resubmit the bill to the council for review before December, but admitted there was a possibility that the museum would drop the project given the numerous delays.
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