Yunlin County is close to being unable to pay either the salaries or year-end bonuses of its 100,000 public servants.
Yilan County has a NT$20 billion (US$669.8 million) debt that is not getting any smaller, while Chiayi County has a NT$3 billion deficit it has not been able to reduce this year.
Those were the stories told by county commissioners as they met in Taipei yesterday, concerned that local counties will be neglected in a large financial restructuring bill aimed at diverting more funds to the four new special municipalities.
“It almost seems fair — determining the amount of government subsidies based on ... population and size, but for counties that are sparsely populated, what it will create is a financial [black hole],” Pingtung County Commissioner Tsao Chi-hung (曹啟鴻) said.
The special municipalities are to be given significantly more annual funding by the central government. Taipei County, Taichung and Tainan will be upgraded on Saturday, the same day that existing special municipality Kaohsiung is to be merged with neighboring Kaohsiung County.
In the case of Taipei County, Ministry of Finance documents show that it is set to receive NT$46.6 billion in subsidies next year, compared with the NT$23.8 billion it received in 2007. The figure includes a second one-time payment of NT$10 billion associated with the upgrade.
“At the same time that [a special municipality] is focused on how to implement a new luxury tax ... all we are worried about is how we are going to survive past tomorrow,” Chiayi County Commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠) told a press conference at the legislature.
Earlier in the morning, four commissioners of DPP administered counties, including Yilan’s Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢) and Yunlin’s Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬), met with Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) to discuss the proposed changes to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法).
Under the tabled revision, special municipalities are set to receive 61 percent of the money set aside by the central government, up from 43 percent and roughly proportionate with their share of the population.
At the same time, the share given to counties and local municipalities will fall to 24 percent from 39 percent — a figure that the county commissioners yesterday want revised upward.
However, Lee said he believed the bill would be sufficient to help the long-term development targets of local counties. He suggested that local government cut spending, saying that local government debts have been a problem for the past few years.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
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