Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (
"The Taipei City Government's financial record is always clear. The city's budget keeps shrinking under the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] government," Hau said yesterday at a press conference at Taipei City Hall.
Hau said the city government opposed the central government's plan for Taipei and Kaohsiung cities to share their annual budgets with Taipei County. He also condemned Chen, a former Taipei mayor, for ignoring the needs of Taipei residents and cutting the city's budget.
Hau made the remarks in response to Chen's call on Wednesday for the city to make public an account of its tax surplus after it refused to share its tax redistribution fund with Taipei County, which is to be upgraded to the status of a special municipality.
Hau said that the city's tax redistribution fund had been more than NT$170 billion (US$5 billion) under Chen's municipal administration, adding that the DPP government had cut NT$18 billion from the budget each year, reducing the city's annual budget to approximately NT$130 billion. The city is NT$170 billion in debt, he said.
"Each resident of Taipei is shouldering a debt of NT$176,000 each year as a result of the budget shortfall and it's unfair," Hau said.
Hau said the city had given 75 percent of its tax revenue to the government, adding that the government should not cut the city's tax redistribution fund, which he said would worsen its financial situation.
"The city government will not make any concessions on the budget issue and we expect all of Taipei's residents to stand by our side and fight with us," he said.
The Executive Yuan plans to allot part of the Taipei and Kaohsiung city budgets to Taipei County, but Hau and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
RSS