The Kuomintang party’s city councilors questioned the financial and accounting reports on May 9th. They pointed directly at the 20.6 billion yuan shortfall in the budget for the construction of the municipal art museum, attributing it to former Mayor Cheng’s decision to adopt a subtractive contracting method during his tenure. Deputy Premier Cheng of the Executive Yuan, who inspected the art museum, initially suggested the shortfall could be covered using centrally allocated tax revenues. However, it was later confirmed that this plan fell through. In response, the blue party councilors demanded that the city government, through six legislators, vigorously pursue relevant funding from the central government.
The initial budget for the construction of the municipal art museum was over 3.75 billion yuan, with over 1.37 billion yuan in central government subsidies. However, under former Mayor Cheng Wen-Tsan’s tenure, a subtractive contracting method was adopted, leading to an estimated additional expense of at least 20.6 billion yuan for the project under Mayor Chang Shan-Cheng’s administration.
Councilors Chen Mei-Mei, Lin Zheng-Xian, Huang Wan-Ru, Xu Qi-Wan, Zhang Shuo-Fang, and others stated that Deputy Premier Cheng of the Executive Yuan, following his inspection of the municipal art museum construction on March 26th, suggested that the 20.6 billion yuan shortfall in the total project budget could initially be covered by centrally allocated tax revenues. If this was not sufficient, assistance from the central government would be sought. They sought clarification on whether this substantial project budget shortfall for the art museum had already been covered by normal centrally allocated tax revenues in the 112th fiscal year.
Finance Bureau Director Ou Mei-Huan explained that because the city government had received an additional centrally allocated tax revenue of 4.587 billion yuan for the 2023 fiscal year that was fully incorporated into the fiscal year’s accounts, it could not be used to support the construction of the municipal art museum.
The Kuomintang party councilors who raised the inquiry demanded that the 20.6 billion yuan shortfall in the art museum project could not be covered by centrally allocated tax revenues and should continue to actively seek central government assistance to reduce the financial burden.
Councilors Qian Long, Wu Jin-Chang, Zhang Gui-Mian, Chen Wei-Ye, Li Bai-Fang, Huang Jing-Ping, and others pointed out that since the establishment of Taoyuan City’s transformation, the total of centrally allocated tax and general subsidies received by the city throughout the years has consistently been the lowest among the six municipalities. In fiscal years 113 and 112, the central government’s centrally allocated tax and general subsidies allocated to the city were 37.3 billion yuan and 32.8 billion yuan, respectively, ranking last among the six municipalities.
The councilors raising inquiries demanded that the formula for the distribution of fiscal revenues and expenditures should reasonably reflect Taoyuan City’s contribution to industrial output and the city’s financial resource needs. They called on the city government team to take advantage of legislative opportunities and enlist the help of the city’s six legislators to actively seek reasonable financial treatment from the central government.
The Finance Bureau stated that the formula for the distribution of fiscal revenues and expenditures has not been revised for nearly 25 years and is now outdated. The current formula for the allocation of centrally allocated tax revenues to municipalities includes indicators such as “operating revenue of business entities” at 50%, “population” at 20%, “land area” at 20%, and “financial capacity” at 10%. The current formula discriminates against Taoyuan City, as the weight of the operating revenue of business entities is a high 50%, industrial output is not accounted for, and the financial capacity at 10% operates as a reverse indicator, penalizing fiscal efforts.