Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) yesterday called for the quick passage of amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) to facilitate the upgrade and merger of several cities and counties into special municipalities.
Jiang made the call during a meeting with Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidate for the Tainan municipality mayoral election, and several local government officials and DPP representatives.
Jiang said that after the Cabinet approved a plan last year to re-map the country’s administrative zones, his ministry created a task force that has met every two months since last September to handle related affairs.
The task force has created a data bank and information systems, Jiang said, but some issues such as financial policies and the municipal governments’ rights and obligations have yet to be settled.
He said issues concerning labor inspections, traffic supervision and transfers of business operations at public senior high schools and medical institutions are expected to be addressed before October.
The budget and staff of cities and counties will also be handed over as part of the transfers of business operations to the newly formed municipalities, Jiang said.
He said that amendments to the act were crucial to whether the transfer of business operations from the existing local governments to the new municipalities and municipal budget allocations can be completed by next year.
Jiang was responding to complaints of a potential financial shortfall in the new Kaohsiung and Tainan municipalities.
Kaohsiung City Government Secretary-General Hao Chien-sheng (郝建生) said Kaohsiung would be in the red even though the revenue allocation for the new municipality would be NT$14.3 billion (US$443 million).
Based on the current allocation act, expenditures would be at least NT$26.2 billion, Hao said.
Transfer of business operations after the merger will require a lot of money, and an exact division of powers and functions between the central and local governments has not been established, he said.
Hao suggested the central government retain temporary workers hired by the local governments’ township offices.
Chen said she hoped the merger could help narrow the gap between urban and rural areas.
Lai expressed concern that the future Tainan municipality would have to spend about NT$20 billion, but would only be allocated NT$8 billion.
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