地方財政自我負責機制與財政收支劃分

Abstract

台灣縣級政府整體的財政餘絀，在解嚴前的二十五年之中並沒有有赤字。縣級整體財政赤字自解嚴後的一九九○、一九九一年開始發生。一九九二到一九九六轉為盈餘，但一九九七年以後赤字一直持續的趨勢就沒有反轉過。這種現象部分要歸因於地方政府對政治體制改變適應的不良，而產生「憚收、濫支」的現象。而其問題的根源則在於地方財政自我負責機制的不足。\n台灣地方政府則政自我負責機制的不足，是五十年戒嚴統治下，在財政方面「中央集權、地方依賴」的結果。解決之道，不但要增加地方財政資源、賦予地方財政權力，更重要的是使地方必須自已承擔「憚收、濫支」的後果。本文除分析現行財劃法與地方財政自我負責機制關係的薄弱以外，其解決方法之一就是要限制中央對地方的補助，並使補助款清楚化、透明化、法制化。為了提高地方財政的自我負責機制，在統籌分稅款的分配上，也應加入誘因機制，鼓勵地方自籌財源，懲罰「憚收、濫支」的現象。為此，本文參考美國租稅分成公式，考量台灣稅制與資料，建議了一套分配的公式（或分配的機制）以供參考與討論。

Before the lifting of Martial Law in Taiwan, there had been no budget deficits for the hsien, or prefecture, level local governments in aggregate for twenty-five years. After the lifting of Martial Law, the deficits for the hsien level governments in aggregate started to happen in 1990 and 1991. There were surpluses between 1992 and 1996, but the deficit trend since 1997 has never been reversed. Part of the reason of this deficit trend is due to “timid to collect, eager to spend” mentality of the local governments. The root of this problem is deficiency in fiscal discipline, which was not cultured during the Martial Law period. This paper investigates the possible and feasible methods in improving the fiscal discipline of the local governments under Taiwan’s current political and fiscal system. We analyze the weak link between the current Revenues and Expenditures Classification Act and the improvement of fiscal discipline. We propose some measures and incentive mechanisms that would help to improve the fiscal discipline of the local governments. Base on Taiwan’s tax system and data and in accordance with the principles of general revenue sharing, we devised a revenue sharing formula for the integrated Redistribution Money for further discussions.