The Executive Yuan yesterday decided to ask the Legislative Yuan to strike down amendments to the Law Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expen-ditures that would give local governments an additional NT$150 billion annually from the central government's coffers.
The amendment was passed as a rider to the national budget at the end of the last legislative session.
The Cabinet has, however, yet to come up with a substitute local-government funding plan should the Legislative Yuan eventually vote in the Cabinet's favor.
Premier Yu Shyi-kun said however that the Cabinet was working flat out on a more comprehensive proposal in which local governments would enjoy more financial autonomy instead of depending on the central government for funding.
The legislature agreed on Tuesday to call a meeting on Feb. 19 to discuss the matter and to reach a consensus on the same day.
The Constitution mandates that the legislature has to reach a final decision within 15 days of receiving the Cabinet's request.
Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Addressing a press conference after the Cabinet's meeting yesterday morning, Yu said that the Cabinet had no alternative but to overturn the amendments. Trying to revise the law yet again, the only other option open, would simply be too time consuming, Yu said.
In addition to pointing out the hasty passage of the amendments in the final hours of the previous legislature's last session, Yu outlined two major flaws in the changes.
First, by requiring the government to give NT$150 billion extra to local governments, it would either necessitate an increase in government indebtedness -- difficult because this is already near its legal limit -- or big reductions in funding for other central-government programs.
Secondly, the changes would paralyze the central government's originally transparent funding system in that the central government would no longer be able to track how the money it forked out to local governments was actually spent.
DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (
"In the meantime, the ruling and opposition parties as well as the central and local governments can all sit down and think of another way to tackle the matter," he said.
Hsieh added that Ma appeared to think the same when the two discussed the matter over the telephone the night before.
Pai Hsiu-hsiung (
"What it does is only create political tension," Pai told a press conference yesterday morning.
In addition, he said, it breached the spirit of local governments' financial autonomy.
"To overturn the amendments is tantamount to vetoing President Chen Shui-bian's (
Legislature gears up for funding war
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