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
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