Opposition parties yesterday showed no sign of agreeing to the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) proposal to hold a special legislative session to tackle six priority bills, including the proposed eight-year, NT$80 billion (US$2.5 billion) flood-control bill.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who returned from his US trip last night, is scheduled to hold an informal plenary meeting tomorrow to discuss the DPP's proposal.
Cross-party talks are to be held today with the hope of reaching a preliminary consensus before tomorrow's meeting, where the DPP caucus plans to put the matter to a vote if necessary.
The People First Party (PFP) legislative caucus yesterday questioned the timing of the proposed extraordinary session, as well as the DPP's motive for earmarking the flood-control scheme as a special budget.
"The timing is wrong, because the upcoming regular legislative session will be pushed forward by about two weeks to Sept. 13," PFP caucus whip Hwang Yih-jiau (
Hwang added that almost every legislative session since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came to power has been followed by a special session.
"It has seriously sabotaged the solemnity of this special session," he said.
While flood-control should be a continuous effort, Hwang said that the government should have earmarked the budget as a normal annual allocation, rather than a special budget.
Hwang said that it was unnecessary to tackle the flood-control project with a special budget, because the government has about NT$19.2 billion at its disposal.
He also questioned whether the DPP intends to use the flood-control budget as an excuse to pass five other bills during the proposed special session.
Another PFP caucus whip, Sun Ta-chien (
"There is no way we will let the DPP administration get away with it this time, not until it offers an acceptable explanation of how the SARS special budget has been spent," he said, referring to the NT$50 billion that had been allocated during the SARS epidemic.
Official figures show the government has spent about NT$23 billion of the NT$50 billion budget.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Lai Ching-te (
In response to the PFP's objections about the spending of the SARS budget, Lai said that opposition parties should have recognized the government's efforts to save taxpayers' money, rather than letting politics get in the way.
Lai also said that his caucus will continue to negotiate with opposition parties, especially the PFP, to win their support for the proposed special session.
PFP Legislator Lee Hung-chun (
He said his caucus would strongly oppose the flood-control plan unless the government can guarantee that the money will be fairly allocated among local governments.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said that it will leave the decision on whether to support the special session until today.
"We will discuss the matter with Speaker Wang when we see him tomorrow [last night]. It will then be his job to talk to the PFP caucus," KMT caucus whip Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) said.
Cho and two other KMT caucus whips, Tsai Chin-lung (
Although KMT chairman-elect Ma Ying-jeou (
According to an internal opinion poll conducted by the KMT yesterday, most caucus members support the flood-control project, but are opposed to calling a special session to deal with the issue.
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