The Legislative Yuan today passed a motion urging the Executive Yuan to undo its 25-percent cut to local government subsidies.
The legislature passed the motion with 57 in favor, 48 against and one abstention, as the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) overcame the objections of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
As the majority voted in favor of the motion, the Executive Yuan’s Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics should reallocate budgets for the central government’s agencies in accordance with the previously passed budget cuts and fully disburse the local government grants, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) said.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
In May, the Executive Yuan announced plans to cut local government subsidies by 25 percent after the Legislative Yuan passed a central government budget that required it to reduce spending, leading to mayors and county commissioners urging it to reconsider the decision.
At the time, the Executive Yuan said that the reduction of local subsidies is equally in line with the Legislative Yuan’s general budget cuts and that it requested a constitutional judgement on the matter.
The cuts led to fierce criticism from the opposition parties, leading to the TPP legislative caucus proposing a motion to urge the government to immediately disburse the funds following the Executive Yuan’s announcement.
The subsidy cuts went against the intent of the original budget cuts and undermined local economic development, the TPP’s motion said, which was reviewed by the Finance Committee and inter-party negotiations.
The motion is to request the central government to return the NT$63.6 billion (US$2.12 billion) subsidies to local governments as they need the money to take care of the disadvantaged groups, KMT caucus secretary-general Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said.
Additional reporting by Lin Hsin-han, Lee Wen-hsin and Fion Khan
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