The Legislative Yuan on Friday amended the Local Government Act (地方制度法), lowering the population threshold for new county-administered cities to 100,000 from 150,000.
Because the title change does not affect a township’s budget or staffing quota, some academics said that without distributing more resources, the amendment is meant only to sway voters, who would not benefit.
With the amendment, Changhua County’s Yuanlin Township (員林) and Miaoli County’s Toufen Township (頭份), which meet the threshold, are expected to be renamed. Hsinchu County’s Chutung Township (竹東), Changhua County’s Hemei Township (和美) and Nantou County’s Caotun Township (草屯), with more than 90,000 people, could potentially be renamed.
Ministry of the Interior Director of Civil Affairs Lin Ching-chi (林清淇) said that since townships and county-administered cities have the same legal rank under the act, financing and personnel quotas for a township that becomes a county-administered city remain the same, but the administrative costs of national identification and address plate-reissuance shift to the county government.
A Ministry of Finance official added that the Regulations for Allocation of Centrally Funded Tax Revenues (中央統籌分配稅款分配辦法) stipulate that 61.76 percent of total tax revenues is allocated to special municipalities, 24 percent goes to counties or cities and 8.24 percent is for townships, so becoming a county-administered city does not increase a township’s budget.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Su-yueh (陳素月), who proposed the amendment, said Yuanlin is a major township in the county, with a population of 120,000, but had not been able to become a county-administered city, to the disappointment of many locals.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Cheng Ru-fen (鄭汝芬) said the designation has long been an aspiration of residents.
“It is a kind of honor,” said Cheng, adding that it could also help narrow north-south development disparities.
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