 Over 3,000 mayors gather to resolve fiscal security About 3,200 town and village mayors from throughout Japan held a meeting in Tokyo on December 2 to call for tax money allocation to help secure municipal revenues, in opposition to the Koizumi Cabinet's plan for subsidy cuts. The government and ruing parties in late November agreed on a plan to reduce state subsidies to local governments by 2.8 trillion yen in the next two years, and transfer some rights to collect taxes to local governments. The meeting called for all cities, towns and villages to be counted as basic administrative units even when their population changed following mergers, and that they should be afforded with fiscal measures to secure funds necessary for administration. Yamamoto Fumio, president of the organizer National Associations of Towns & Villages said that the association has objections to the government policy but that a certain amount of progress has been made through negotiations with the central government. Criticizing the government moves to cut local grant taxes, the meeting published a proposal that increases in revenue should be sought in increased rates for the local grant tax. * * * Nine out of ten Japanese Communist Party heads of towns and villages were present at the meeting. Later, they visited the JCP main office and talked with JCP Central Committee Chair Fuwa Tetsuzo, Executive Committee Chair Shii Kazuo, and Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi, with Komae mayor Yano Yutaka also present. As at December 2, there are a record 13 communist mayors, three for cities, and ten for towns and villages. (end) |