A big government nightmare is being unloosed.The Legislative Yuan has just passed a law allowing the county of Taipei to upgrade itself to a special municipality.Taiwan will be saddled with another big and spendthrift government.
The country now has only two special municipalities, which are under direct control of the Executive Yuan or the Cabinet.They are the special municipalities of Taipei and Kaohsiung, where their people voted in the new mayors and city councils in December last year. The county of Taipei, like 20 other counties and cities, used to be placed under control of the province of Taiwan.That province exists in name only.All 21 administrative districts are controlled in fact by the Cabinet just like the two special municipalities.
So, the metamorphosis of the county of Taipei makes no change whatsoever except that its new administration will hire four times as many government employees and more than double its budget.According to an extremely happy Taipei county magistrate Chow His-wei, his staff will increase to 16,000 personnel from the current 4,000 and the annual budget is expected to hit NT$150 billion.Its current budget totals NT$70 billion.
Mr. Chow of the Kuomintang was not the only happy man.Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker at large Yu Ching, who served two four-year terms as magistrate of Taiwan’s most populous county, was so happy as to suggest a name for the emerging special municipality.He wants to call it Greater Taipei City, hinting at encompassing the existing special municipality of Taipei under Kuomintang mayor Hau Lung-bin.As a matter of fact, the creation of the new municipality was approved unanimously for the first time in seven years, legislators of both the ruling party and the opposition voting for it in unison.
All are happy save the people in administrative districts other than the Greater Taipei City to be.How will a new bigger government be financed?The Executive Yuan has to rearrange budget allocations.One inevitable consequence is the crowding out of allocations for all the rest of local governments, unless new levies are legislated and collected.Poorer counties and cities would feel the pinch at once.They have to reduce their service.
That is not all the trouble Taiwan will have.With the new law in force, another special municipality will be created in no time.The city and county of Taichung are planning to merge to make that special municipality.The big government nightmare will then begin to choke Taiwan.
（本文刊載於96.05.07 China Post第4版，本文代表作者個人意見）