Ruling Party Blames Opposition for Cuts to Local Government Subsidies

TaiwanPlus News

Taiwan's Cabinet last week said that it will cut central government subsidies for local governments by 25%. The ruling party says the reductions are necessary in the face of unreasonable budget cuts by the opposition.

Transcript

00:00Two sides, one budget.

00:02Last week, Taiwan's cabinet announced that the central government will cut subsidies to local governments by 25%.

00:10It's a move that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party is pinning on the country's opposition.

00:16Taiwan's legislature controls the country's general budget, and the opposition-held chamber is deeply fractured.

00:35The DPP is frequently at odds with the main opposition Kuomintang and the smaller Taiwan People's Party.

00:41A bevy of issues divide the two sides, but none are as contentious as the country's general budget.

00:49The ruling DPP's cabinet originally drafted a $100 billion U.S. proposal for the year,

00:56but opposition lawmakers cut that proposal by a record 7% and passed the revised spending bill.

01:03The bill stipulates that the cabinet must make discretionary cuts of $2.1 billion U.S. dollars to its own budget.

01:12The ruling party now says the opposition forced the cabinet into cutting local government subsidies.

01:17The KMT, which holds a majority of the country's local government seats, has shot back,

01:31saying that the cabinet's decision is unlawful.

01:34The KMT chair Eric Zhu is now urging local governments to take legal action against the central government.

01:56From the legislature to the cabinet to now local governments, fractures over the budget are showing even more cracks,

02:20ones that threaten to split ruling and opposition parties even further.

02:24Patrick Chen and Leslie Liao for Taiwan Plus.

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