Amid strong criticism from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday remained steadfast over his resolve to cut the city’s “Double Ninth Festival” cash payments to senior citizens, saying he would not back a policy that asks politicians to “play Santa Claus.”
Prior to his policy address on the city’s budget proposals for next year, Ko faced a barrage of criticism from KMT councilors over the cut.
Ko last month proposed the exclusion of senior citizens from high and middle-income families from the payments, which range from NT$1,500 to NT$10,000 depending on age. The move would save the city about NT$700 million (US$21.5 million).
KMT Taipei City Councilor Wang Hong-wei (王鴻薇) said that Tainan, Taichung and New Taipei City have continued to issue the payments, and asked why Taipei should stop.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Lee Yan-hsiu (李彥秀) said many elderly people in her constituency believe the cuts are a slight against them, as Ko’s supporters are predominantly young people.
Ko said Taipei should take the lead in pushing for annuity reforms, noting that the pensions to be paid to the city’s public servants next year, more than NT$12 billion, account for 10.7 percent of the city government’s overall estimated expenditure.
“Taipei residents aged 65 or older accounted for 14 percent of the total in January this year, and the figure will exceed 20 percent in five years time. By then, the city government would have to issue more than NT$1 billion in Double Ninth Festival payments,” Ko said.
Saying the city pays out more than NT$7 billion annually in subsidies and cash prizes that are not stipulated in national laws, Ko said: “If we do not even dare to overhaul the Double Ninth Festival payments, how will we push for subsequent annuity reforms?”
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching