Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers representing “non-special municipality” cities and counties yesterday said they would propose a 10-year, NT$100 billion (US$3.33 billion) project to help local governments’ finances and to close the gap in general development between the six special municipalities and local regions.
The six special municipalities — Taipei City, New Taipei City, Greater Taichung, Greater Tainan, Greater Kaohsiung and Taoyuan County, which is scheduled to be promoted to special municipality status by the end of the year — take up only 30 percent of the nation’s territory, but have created a magnet effect by accounting for more than 70 percent of the population and sucking up most government funding, Pingtung County DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) told a press conference.
“One Taiwan, two worlds. That is how I would put it. The urbanization phenomenon and the government’s poor allocation of the Tax Redistribution Fund (統籌分配款), which heavily favored the special municipalities, have contributed to a growing imbalance between the six large cities and the other administrative zones,” Pan said.
Between 2011 and this year, about 63 percent of the tax redistribution fund went to the six special municipalities, while only 22 percent was allocated to the 16 other administrative zones, Pan said.
Drawing on the Offshore Islands Development Act (離島建設條例) and the Hualien-Taitung Area Development Act (花東地區發展條例), Pan and other DPP lawmakers are proposing a special act for revitalizing cities’ and counties’ development, under which a development fund of NT$100 billion is planned to be established to help poorer and less-developed rergions.
Pan said he hoped that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers representing those regions would support the proposed bill for the 11 administrative regions.
According to Pan — the DPP’s nominee in the Pingtung commissioner election — the bill would demand that the government initiate a strategic plan, to be reviewed every four years, and that the development fund would come from an annual government subsidy to be granted for a period of 10 years, together with interest, donations and other resources.
Citing government statistics, the lawmakers said that the gap between the special municipalities and other regions is alarming.
In 2012, the average annual household income in the special municipalities was NT$160,000 higher than in other regions, while the average social welfare expenditure per resident was NT$8,529 for special municipality residents and NT$5,087 for non-special municipality residents.
As far as transportation infrastructure is concerned, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ annual subsidy for the special municipalities in the five years between 2009 and last year was as high as NT$28 billion, but the highest annual subsidy in the non-special municipality regions was NT$5.6 billion.
In other areas, such as medical service resources, long-term care resources and education resources, the imbalance has also been apparent, DPP Legislator Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻) of Miaoli County said.
“It doesn’t make sense that the larger cities with much more tax sources receive more government subsidies. It should have been the other way around,” Wu said.
If the imbalance was not addressed quickly, the persistent population outflow and worsening local government finances in the lesser-developed regions could further deteriorate, DPP Legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀) of Yilan County said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS