The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed a motion urging the Executive Yuan to undo its 25 percent cut to local government subsidies.
The legislature passed the motion 57 in favor, 48 against, with one abstention, as the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) overcame the objections of the Democratic Progressive Party.
As the majority voted in favor of the motion, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics should reallocate the budget for central government agencies in accordance with the reduced general budget approved by the legislature and fully disburse local government grants, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) said.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
The Executive Yuan in May announced plans to cut local government subsidies by 25 percent after the Legislative Yuan slashed the central government’s budget. City mayors and county commissioners urged it to reconsider the decision.
At the time, the Cabinet said the reduction of local subsidies is in line with the Legislative Yuan’s general budget cuts and it requested a constitutional judgement on the matter.
The cuts led to fierce criticism from the opposition parties, and the TPP caucus proposed a motion urging the government to immediately disburse the funds following the Cabinet’s announcement.
The subsidy cuts went against the intent of the original budget cuts and undermined local economic development, the TPP motion said, which was reviewed by the Finance Committee and at interparty negotiations.
The motion requests the central government to transfer NT$63.6 billion (US$2.1 billion) of subsidies to local governments, which 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
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS