City mayors and county commissioners complaining about the central government cutting subsidies to local governments should blame opposition lawmakers who “recklessly” slashed the central government’s fiscal budget, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokespeople said yesterday.
Since last year, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers have created political turmoil by joining forces in an attempt to expand the opposition-
controlled legislature’s power and undermine the executive branch, DPP spokeswoman Han Ying (韓瑩) said.
Photo: Liao Chen-hui, Taipei Times
“They also recklessly slashed NT$207.6 billion [US$6.94 billion] from the fiscal budget, including NT$63.6 billion, which they left to the Cabinet to find ways to cut,” she said.
Throughout the budget review, KMT and TPP lawmakers had resorted to violence, refused to hold discussions with and obstructed DPP members from attending legislative sessions, and submitted last-minute motions with few lawmakers knowing what they contained, Han said.
After ramming these motions through their third readings, even KMT and TPP lawmakers had no idea what budget items or how much they had cut, she said.
“It is the first time this has happened in Taiwan’s history — having lawmakers who did not know what they were voting on or what funds were being slashed,” she said.
It has resulted in a budget shortfall, made it difficult for government agencies to function, eliminated social welfare programs and the Cabinet implementing a 25 percent across-the-board cut in subsidies to local governments, Han said.
“Now the city mayors and county commissioners, the majority of whom are KMT members or affiliated with the blue camp, are crying foul, and accusing the central government of being unfair, bad at fiscal management or unlawfully seizing subsidy funds,” she said. “However, the root cause of all of these is the work of the KMT and the TPP in the legislature.”
During the tenures of former presidents Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) from 2009 to last year, the proposed fiscal budget was, on average, cut by 1.19 percent by lawmakers, or 1.1 percent from 2022 to last year, but for this year, the legislature slashed it by a record 6.63 percent, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) said.
“Opposition parties slashed NT$63.6 billion from the Executive Yuan’s operating funds, so it has to make up for it by reducing subsidies to local governments,” he said.
The Cabinet still has to manage ongoing programs, including a four-year NT$40 billion program to enhance walkways for pedestrian safety, a four-year NT$30 billion housing rental subsidy program, the five-year NT$48.9 billion Healthy Taiwan Cultivation Plan, and NT$11.6 billion in stimulus programs for small and medium-sized businesses, he said.
“They are all very important,” he said. “Which ones do the opposition parties want to see cut?”
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
RSS