Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Thursday responded to criticism that the city government’s allocation of up to NT$1.5 billion (US$45.69 million) to its second reserve fund — the highest in the city’s history — was excessive, saying that the fund was aimed at “limiting variables” in pushing city policies.
The allocation of funds, which is NT$500 million more than what former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) budgeted last year, drew criticism from Taipei City councilors from both the pan-green and pan-blue camps.
Responding to questions from the media, Ko said that traditional budgetary planning was no longer suited for today’s fast-paced world, as it is becoming harder to predict what might occur in the near future.
“If you asked a corporation such as Hon Hai Precision Industry or Apple to plan their budgets in the same way Taiwanese government agencies do, could they still operate?” Ko said.
Citing his experience as a professor at National Taiwan University, Ko likened city government projects to projects commissioned by the then-National Science Council (NSC), saying that those projects were proposed much earlier than they were approved.
Ko said an NSC project typically took 18 months from its proposal to completion.
“Do you know what you will be doing 18 months from now?” he said.
As an example of the unpredictability of city policies, Ko cited the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2009 Summer Deaflympics, which cost the city government NT$530 million. In contrast, the budget planned for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2017 Summer Universiade total about NT$390 million.
Ko said that through cost-cutting measures, the city was able to save NT$2 billion from the total to be paid to companies that are in charge of maintaining the venues during the upcoming Universiade.
It is because of these uncertainties that he has asked his administration to allow for a 6 percent buffer when planning their budgets, Ko said.
Saying that Taipei has a total budget of about NT$160 billion, Ko added that NT$1.5 billion might sound like a significant increase compared with last year’s proposed budget, but it constitutes a small fraction of the overall total.
He said that the budget planning method used by his administration challenges the norm and that he would give a more detailed account at a meeting of the city council this month.
When asked if he agreed with the adage “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Ko said: “I do. It [power] is absolutely dangerous to the likes of [former Miaoli county commissioner] Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻), but Ko Wen-je has got credit.”
The Miaoli County Government had announced that it was mired in debt just months after Liu left office — a situation Miaoli County Commissioner Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌) blamed on excessive borrowing during Liu’s term.
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