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 year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS