The legislature’s Procedure Committee yesterday voted against scheduling a debate on next year’s budget as opposition legislators said the proposed budget was missing funding items that were omitted by the Cabinet.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on Friday last week used their combined legislative majority to vote to return next year’s proposed budget to the Procedure Committee, which organizes bills and determines which are to be discussed and when.
The committee voted nine to seven with one abstention to not schedule a hearing for the budget, which led to the committee’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members raising protest signs.
Photo: Chen Cheng-yu, Taipei Times
All but one of KMT and TPP committee members voted against scheduling a hearing with the sole abstention being KMT Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋).
When the meeting started, KMT caucus whip Lin Tzu-ming (林思銘) moved to postpone all 12 proposals. While this is allowed, it is unprecedented, said DPP Legislator Shen Fa-hui (沈發惠), who chairs the committee.
The decision to postpone the budget review could result in other committees not having their own budget proposals to review, he added.
KMT Legislator Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍) pushed back on Shen’s statement, saying that the budget needs to be redrafted to include important amendments passed earlier this year, like increased logging compensation for indigenous people, higher prices for national food stocks and National Health Insurance point adjustments.
The KMT is asking the administration to incorporate these resolutions into the budget and ensure the government is spending taxpayers’ money appropriately, he added.
He accused the DPP of having postponed prior budgets, such as in 2008, which resulted in several DPP officials clarifying that past budgets were never postponed, only critiqued.
DPP Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) accused the opposition legislators of putting on a show, harming the nation and not actually reading the proposed budget.
The proposed budget included a 3 percent salary raise for public servants and school subsidies, she said.
If the opposition parties have issues with individual ministry budgets, those could be raised in committee reviews, rather than postponing the whole budget, DPP Legislator Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said.
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) expressed dismay at the committee’s decision, saying that the budget could be explained, discussions could be held and dissenting views would be respected.
DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) called the decision irrational and claimed that it “erodes” Taiwan’s democracy. She also warned the opposition that public opinion would turn against them.
Additional reporting by Hsieh Chun-lin and Chen Cheng-yu
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