Admin still determining impact of $156M budget on govt personnel

The Office of Management and the State Administering Agency are still determining how many people work for the government and what the next step is now that the $156.76 million Fiscal Year 2009 budget is in place, according to press secretary Charles Reyes.

The budget, which includes $148 million from local collections, became law last week after the House of Representatives overrode Gov. Benigno Fitial’s veto. The Senate had earlier overridden the veto.

After the law was passed, Fitial said the administration immediately began looking into the ramifications of the new budget. Thousands of government employees could possibly be let go or the government could be forced to shut down as early as July, Finance Secretary Eloy Inos said last week.

At a press conference last Thursday, Fitial said he was instructing mayors to calculate how many personnel they have.

The new budget allows for more than 4,000 full time employees. When asked for an estimate of how many employees could be laid off, Inos said he did not want to calculate numbers.

“I’d really hate to go that route. To go through the exercise to do that because it will be a very painful exercise and the consequence is going to be very detrimental,” he said. “I was hoping I would not need to go through that route, but with the situation the way it is, that should be the start of the planning process.”

Inos did agree, however, that the number is “probably” in the thousands.

Civil service employees cannot be terminated.

The Legislature put the administration in a very difficult situation, Fitial said.

“And the reason why it is going to be very difficult is because the Legislature chose to not work together with the administration, and this thing has got to stop because we are working for the people.”

It’s all political, he said, adding that because he is running for re-election, members of the Legislature did not think he would make touch decisions.

“That’s wrong because I’m committed to do what is right,” he said.

The administration is pushing the Legislature to pass austerity measures, saying without them the government will fall deeper into a deficit. The government overspent by $4.5 million for the first quarter of the fiscal year, and is on track to overspend the same amount by the end of this quarter, which ends at the end of the month, Inos said.