Proposed flood-control bill causes bickering

Chinese Nationalist Party legislators Lin Cheng-feng, left, Pan Wei-kang, center, and Luo Shih-hsiung yesterday hold a press conference in the legislature to slam the government's plan to spend NT$80 billion on a flood-control project. They say it is a pork-barrel policy meant to woo voters for the year-end elections. PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES

With the year-end elections approaching, the governing and opposition parties yesterday engaged in political bickering over a proposed flood-control bill.

While the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus criticized it as a pork-barrel policy meant to woo voters with an eye to the forthcoming polls, the Democ-ratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus dismissed the criticism as "political hot air." Branding the eight-year, NT$80 billion (US$2.38 billion) flood-fighting special bill proposed by the DPP-led government as a "joke," KMT caucus whip Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) said that the proposed bill was actually a "fake flood-management, true vote-buying" scheme.

"We are asking the Executive Yuan to reformulate the bill and readjust the budget," she said. "We will present our own version of the bill in the near future."

Pan said that her caucus does not rule out the possibility of suing the government for "vote-buying" if the proposed legislation is not properly reviewed.

While the Executive Yuan seeks to request about NT$12 billion for the project next year, KMT Legislator Lin Cheng-fong (林正峰) asked the government to present detailed plans and budget requests for the remaining NT$68 billion that was originally touted, too.

Criticizing the bill as "crudely prepared" and "unpractical," Lin asked why most of the NT$12 billion budget is earmarked for counties and cities governed by the DPP.

He proposed that central government agencies work with local governments to present a better-thought-out plan. He said that he would personally endorse such a plan even if the budget exceeded NT$300 billion.

Lin also said that part of the DPP's plan is incorrectly mapped out because while the government should have tackled the flooding problems in the upper parts of rivers, it plans to do the opposite.

In addition, Lin said that the fund should be used to take care of the flooding problem rather than to beautify river banks and river-front walkways like the Executive Yuan has proposed.

In response, DPP Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) called on the KMT caucus to cut down on "political hot air" and take action to tackle the flooding problem.

While the KMT charged that most of the fund would be used in DPP-governing areas, Cheng said that such an allegation was purely political prejudice.

"If they want to know why most of the fund is allocated to southern or central Taiwan, they should look at why those areas' flooding problem is more serious than that in other areas," he said.

"If the former KMT administration had done a good job in managing the flooding problem during its 50 years in power, we wouldn't have to do it now," he said.

According to Cheng, about NT$29.5 billion, or about 37 percent, of the fund would be distributed to non-DPP-ruled counties and cities. Places governed by the KMT such as Taoyuan County would get NT$7.4 billion, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County NT$800 million, and Miaoli County NT$2.2 billion.

DPP Legislator Wu Bing-ray (吳秉叡) dismissed the KMT's vote-buying charge as "inappropriate," saying that the flood-control project would not begin until next year even if the bill clears the legislature during this legislative session.