Huang Kuo-chang Questions Su Chiao-hui's Welfare Policy Funding; Green Camp Legislator: Policy Feasible

Taiwan People's Party Chairman Huang Kuo-chang today led party councilors and councilor candidates to hold a press conference on "Implementing Fiscal Discipline and a Sustainable Financial Blueprint for New Taipei." He pointed out that during elections, candidates often present various policy promises, but without a solid financial foundation, all policies are just empty talk.

Huang Kuo-chang specifically named Su Chiao-hui, who recently claimed that six welfare policies would only cost NT$8 billion. However, after item-by-item verification, the actual expenditure was as high as NT$22 billion, questioning whether she had a problem with mathematics or integrity.

Su Chiao-hui's six major welfare policies include: free nutritious lunches for public elementary and junior high school students, free outpatient and inpatient co-payments for children aged zero to six, free enterovirus and rotavirus vaccinations for children aged zero to six, a NT$30,000 care allowance for premature babies, a maximum NT$50,000 denture subsidy for people aged 65 and above, and increasing the senior citizen card points to 1,000 points with no annual reset.

Regarding New Taipei's finances, Huang Kuo-chang made four commitments. The first is to halve the debt within eight years, reducing New Taipei's long-term debt to NT$48 billion, estimated to save NT$1.1 billion in interest expenses annually, and investing the saved resources into long-term care, childcare, education, and infrastructure upgrades.

The second commitment is to establish a financial transparency dashboard to allow citizens to instantly grasp financial information. The third commitment is that land acquired by New Taipei in overall development zones will never be publicly auctioned, but instead will adopt surface rights settings, using a "lease-only, no-sale" approach to preserve valuable public assets and achieve financial sustainability through stable revenue.

Huang Kuo-chang said the last commitment is to gradually suspend entertainment taxes. First, significantly reduce the entertainment tax rate for cultural and artistic activities such as movies, singing, drama, and dance; second, halve the tax collection for venues under the Cultural Affairs Department and Sports Department; finally, after the "Entertainment Tax Act" is amended and local governments are granted the authority to suspend collection, fully suspend entertainment taxes to reduce the burden on the cultural, artistic, and performing industries.

In response to Huang Kuo-chang's criticism of Su Chiao-hui, New Taipei City Councilor Yen Wei-tzu of the Democratic Progressive Party stated that Su Chiao-hui's six major welfare policies not only reflect citizens' expectations but are also absolutely feasible based on the current municipal foundation. Mayor Hou Yu-ih has already followed suit with free nutritious lunches, yet Huang Kuo-chang is still fixated on the KMT-TPP alliance, showing his ignorance of New Taipei City's administration. If Huang Kuo-chang opposes these six policies, he should specifically point out which one he opposes and discuss it rationally instead of engaging in political manipulation. (Edited by: Lin Shu-hui) 1150408