Local Government Heads Petition Cabinet Over Recent Subsidy Cuts

TaiwanPlus News

A group of Taiwan's city mayors and county magistrates went to the Cabinet to protest recent cuts to their funding. Led by Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an, the group lodged an official petition.

Transcript

00:00A battle between Taiwan's central and local governments continues to rage

00:05as leaders from so-called blue municipalities gathered at the cabinet

00:09to protest a recent decision to cut their funding.

00:13This all began at the start of the year when Taiwan's opposition-held legislature

00:17made record cuts to the cabinet's budget proposal for 2025.

00:22Together, the main opposition, Kuomintang, and the smaller Taiwan People's Party

00:26slashed the proposed budget by a record 7 percent.

00:29They also asked the cabinet to cut 2.1 billion U.S. dollars from its own spending.

00:35The cabinet recently announced that it would cut the central government's subsidies

00:39for local municipalities by about a quarter to comply with that requirement.

00:44And that's where we are today.

00:46Most of Taiwan's 22 local government seats are held by the Kuomintang.

00:51Taipei Mayor Jiang Wan'an led a group of local leaders to the cabinet

00:55to deliver a petition.

00:57They're asking the cabinet to rethink these cuts.

01:11The ruling Democratic Progressive Party has said

01:14that the cabinet had no choice but to cut local government subsidies

01:18as there's no other feasible areas where cuts can be made.

01:22The KMT has called the move illegal.

01:24Instead, it will ask the courts to intervene if necessary to protect local government funding.

01:30Premier Zhu Rongtai has proposed a special budget,

01:33one that would fall outside of the general budget to bridge the gap in subsidies.

01:37But the opposition has indicated that that is a non-starter.

01:41This protest falls short of legal action.

01:44But with the way things have played out so far,

01:47unless one party is willing to compromise,

01:48Taiwan has a long way to go before it sees a resolution to the subsidy cuts.

01:53Klein Wang and Leslie Liao in Taipei for Taiwan Plus.

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