The Executive Yuan’s decision to cut local government subsidies by 25 percent is “extremely malicious behavior,” New Taipei City Deputy Mayor Liu Ho-jan (劉和然) said today during a meeting of the Finance Committee.
Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Chen Shu-tzu (陳淑姿) said that due to the Legislative Yuan’s large cuts in the central government budget, the Executive Yuan was at an impasse and had no choice but to cut local government subsidies.
The cuts announced last month sparked fierce criticism from the opposition, with the Taiwan People’s Party caucus previously proposing a motion urging the government to immediately disburse the general subsidies in full.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The opposition parties utilized their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the motion, sending it to the Finance Committee for review.
The committee reviewed the proposal today, inviting Chen, Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) and local government representatives to answer questions.
As the meeting began at 9am, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) and others questioned whether the meeting was illegal and unconstitutional, arguing with opposition legislators.
Wu proposed to adjourn the meeting, but the opposition parties, with their numerical advantage, rejected the motion and the meeting continued.
Liu said that the subsidies are extremely important for local governments’ budgets, and they are used by New Taipei City for social welfare, education and basic infrastructure.
Whether cutting these subsidies is legal is up to the legislative and executive branches to decide, but from a local government perspective it is “extremely malicious behavior,” he said.
Chen said that the Legislative Yuan cut the central government’s budget for this year by NT$207.6 billion (US$6.9 billion), leaving NT$63.6 billion for the Executive Yuan to determine what budgeted items to remove, which has been challenging.
The Executive Yuan repeatedly raised objections and requested the Legislative Yuan to reconsider, but the legislature has upheld its original resolution, Chen said.
The Executive Yuan is proceeding with a request for a constitutional judgement and would assess the situation based on the outcome, she said.
The DPP caucus said that the party has supported local governments and allowed them to prosper, adding that cutting local government subsidies is a result of the opposition parties slashing the central government budget.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS