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Fitial to ask for work hour cuts
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Posted on Mar 30 2009
When Gov. Benigno Fitial submits his Fiscal Year 2010 budget proposal tomorrow, April 1, he will ask the Legislature to include austerity Fridays and 100 percent reprogramming authority in the future budget bill.
Fitial will also ask to maintain the current employers’ contribution rate of 11 percent and to suspend some public laws in order to reduce costs.
The measures are necessary in order to get the budget down to $148 million — the amount expected to be generated locally for the year, said Esther Fleming, the governor’s special assistant for administration.
During the last few months, each government department and agency has been submitting individual budget requests. The total had ballooned to $176 million, so Fleming said the cost-reduction measures are necessary to meet the $148 million limit.
Fitial asked for the 11-percent retirement contribution rate, unpaid holidays, 12 austerity Fridays, and 100 percent reprogramming authority for the Fiscal Year 2009 budget.
In the final budget that became law this month, the only cost-reduction was the measure cutting the employers’ contribution rate from 18 percent to 11 percent.
But Fleming said the administration would once again ask for reduced work hours, this time 16 hours per pay period.
“It’s going to be every Friday, in order for me to bring it down,” Fleming said of the budget numbers. The administration also wants the suspension of the tobacco law, which earmarks funds to certain departments.
One hundred percent reprogramming authority, Fleming said, is essential.
“I think it’s necessary because, then, if we need more than that, we have to go back and get approval [from the Legislature],” she said. “With the revenue that continues to decrease, I think it’s important for the governor to have that opportunity to be able to reprogram when there is a need.”
Tomorrow is the deadline for Fitial to submit his budget proposal for the next fiscal year to the Legislature. By Sept. 1, the Legislature must transmit its final budget to the governor, in time for the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1.
