The Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) stipulates that 43 percent of the central government’s allocated tax revenue go to special municipalities and the remaining 57 percent be divided among the other 23 counties and cities based on each district’s population and area.
The elevation of status to special municipality would grant a county or city a larger budget and the right to employ more personnel.
Shiau urged the government to settle the problem of uneven distribution of resources among municipalities, counties and cities. The reason why so many counties and cities are interested in a status upgrade is so they can remap their districts from the angle of national interests, he said.
Kung Shiann-far (孔憲法), an associate professor at the Department of Urban Planning at National Cheng Kung University, said that Taiwan should have metropolitan areas with populations comparable to other big cities in the world to remain globally competitive.
“The competitiveness should not be built on resources that are supposed to be distributed to other counties and cities. On the contrary, a metropolitan area should be a city capable of driving the development of its neighboring counties and cities,” Kung said.
Integration of neighboring districts and migration should be deciding factors in the process of reviewing the applications as they could affect whether a city would be competitive on the world stage, Kung said.
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