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
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