Independent Taipei city councilors and their counterparts from small political parties yesterday said that they would back a downward adjustment to a proposed water price hike and delay plans to increase bus fares.
The announcement came ahead of a cross-party negotiation scheduled for tomorrow.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), accompanied by deputy mayors Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基) and Charles Lin (林欽榮), visited five Taipei City councilors yesterday to solicit the support of what Ko said was the “key minority” that could help pass two special projects and budget requests for some of the city government’s most important projects.
The projects include the 2050 Vision — which is related to the city’s urban renewal projects and traffic policies — and the second reserve fund, as well as a proposed increase in water prices and bus fares.
The five Taipei City councilors who took part in yesterday’s discussions were independent councilors Lee Ching-yuan (李慶元) and Chen Cheng-chung (陳政忠), the People First Party’s Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) and Lin Kuo-cheng (林國成), and the Republican Party’s Hsi Shih-hsun (徐世勳).
The five councilors asked the city government to call a news conference to clarify the specifics of the 2050 Vision and explain why it needs the budget allocation, in a bid to convince the city council to pass the budget proposal, Lee said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Taipei City Council caucus said it is considering rejecting the budget request.
The city councilors would back a downward adjustment to a proposed water price hike for monthly use of 20 to 60 tonnes of water.
They would ask that water prices charged from these people be cut from NT$6.7 to NT$6.2 per tonne in tomorrow’s cross-party negotiation, to ease the financial burden on intermediate water users, such as small businesses, Lee said.
The Taipei Water Department said it planned to raise the prices from NT$5.7 to NT$7 per tonne.
Lee said he believes that the plan to raise bus fares should be put on hold given the economic slowdown.
Lee said Ko had agreed to freeze the budget for 529 public housing units near a school on Hexin Road in Wenshan District (文山), after residents on Monday opposed to the project out of concern over the construction degrading students’ quality of learning.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS