Frica backs austerity Fridays, unpaid holidays

With $7.2 million in cost overruns in the first six months of the fiscal year, Sen. Maria Frica T. Pangelinan said the Legislature should seriously look into implementing austerity Fridays and unpaid holidays.

In her report on H.B. 16-51, the chairman of the Senate Committee of Fiscal Affairs said that the two items should be seriously considered in order for the government to recoup expenses incurred in the past six months of no austerity measures.

Austerity Fridays mandate that government offices be closed every Friday. It is the same measure enacted by Public Law 15-24, which created the biweekly austerity holidays that expired at the end of Fiscal Year 2007, Sept. 30, 2007.

Unpaid holidays mean that employees who do not work on official CNMI holidays will not be paid for that day. It is the same measure that the Governor’s Office has requested the House and Senate to pass into law since the 15th Legislature.

In order to compensate for the cost overruns incurred since Oct. 1, 2007, Pangelinan said the twin measures should take effect from April 1, 2008, to Sept. 8, 2008.

In addition, Pangelinan stated in her report that austerity measures don’t come without any baggage, as witnessed during the previous round of austerity Fridays last year.

“Austerity measures such as these have additional effect, not immediately apparent. Because gross wages are lowered, amounts owed for insurance and Medicare and retirement are also lower, even though the rate at which they are calculated would remain the issue.”

The Senate unanimously voted to adopt last Wednesday Standing Committee Report 16-08, which recommended that the House of Representatives-approved budget be referred to a joint committee.

The House passed the 2008 appropriations bill on March 3 on first and final reading. It was introduced last Feb. 29 by House Way and Means chair Ray Yumul and earmarks $164.25 million for all government agencies under the General Fund and $3.23 million for the Department of Public Lands, which is funded by income from leases on public lands.

In addition, the bill distributes $5.117 million in Compact Impact funds, or reimbursement money from the federal government to the CNMI for hosting Micronesian citizens.

The budget will apply to the current fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1, 2007 to Sept. 30, 2008.