Compromise results in NT$1.85 billion being cut from original budget of NT$108.90 billion
Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/31
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — After much debate which included brawls, hunger strikes, and
KMT legislators protest passing of infrastructure bill. (By Central News Agency)
napping, the budget for the the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program (前瞻基礎建設計畫) has finally passed as of 1:12 a.m. on Thursday morning.
The newly budget carves out NT$1.85 billion (US$61,357,000) from the NT$108.90 billion originally allocated for the first phase of the infrastructure plan which runs from September 2017 to December 2018.
In addition to the, violent disruptions, the process of negotiating the budget went at a snail’s pace because Kuomintang (KMT) legislators proposed over 10,000 different items to be cut or frozen in the budget. With each proposed cut or freeze requiring a vote, re-vote and reconsideration, the result was that each proposal required eight rounds of voting before moving on to the next. [FULL STORY]