KMT puts infrastructure bills on hold – Taipei Times

DIFFERENCES OF OPINION:
Experts from KMT think tanks and party legislators have talked about major issues facing the three projects during caucus meetings

• By Liu Wan-lin,
  Chen Cheng-yu and Jason Pan / Staff reporters

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said it had put three east coast transportation bills on hold amid criticisms and party divisions.

As party members have not reached a consensus on the projects, the bills would not be passed by the middle of next month as planned, said KMT Culture and Communications Committee director Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀), who doubles as the party’s spokeswoman.

Spearheaded by KMT Legislator Fu Kun-chi, the three bills would require the government to expand the nation’s high-speed rail to the east coast, build an expressway linking Hualien and Taitung counties, and extend the east-west Shuishalian Freeway (Freeway No. 6) to Hualien from Nantou County.

The three projects have been estimated to cost more than NT$2 trillion (US$61.83 billion).

The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics has said that the large price tag would take funds away from other public projects, while Democratic Progressive Party legislators have said the “three money pit projects” would drain financial resources and take state funding away from other counties.

KMT lawmakers expressed differing viewpoints on the east coast transportation projects during caucus meetings over the past two days, Lee said.

“Fu concluded by saying he would respect the feedback and opinions of other party members, and we could rearrange the priority of the bills,” she said.

“Experts from KMT think tanks and party legislators spoke about major issues facing these three projects, mainly the budgets, engineering obstacles and having to get approval after environmental impact assessments,” Lee said.

KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) had spoken in private to political pundits, Lee said.

She quoted Chu as saying that “other people used smear tactics to vilify these three projects, so it is now quite difficult to push the bills through the legislative process.”

“The KMT caucus in conclusion said that we must try to reach some sort of consensus on these issues, and so it is not necessary to push them through as priority bills,” Lee said.

DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that the KMT and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) are trying to deceive the public and have special funds taken from the state budget for the three infrastructure projects.

The only way to prevent political turmoil is to withdraw the three bills, he said.

TPP caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) has been cooperating with Fu to strain the state budget by approving these bills, yet both are still claiming that no special funds would be allocated, and the government would not go into debt because of the three projects, Ker said.

“Stop playing games to deceive the public,” Ker said. “These three bills have contravened the Constitution. These two parties are planning to approve the bills … [which would] require special funding allocated from the state coffers, violating the separation of powers between the different government branches.”