80-percent salary increase is halted

The controversial 80-percent salary increase authorized by law has been put to a stop even if the fiscal year 2018 budget reflects the salary increase, according to official documents obtained by Saipan Tribune.

Finance Secretary Larissa Larson told Sen. Jude Hofschneider (R-Tinian), chairman of the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee, in an Aug. 17, 2017, letter that she will not pay for “such increases” until the increases are proven to be constitutional.

“I have voluntarily agreed to an injunction which precludes from issuing, authorizing, or approving any payment of increased salaries to members of the Legislature, governor, and lieutenant governor until such time that the Supreme Court rules that such increases are constitutional,” said Larson in the letter.

Larson said in the letter that she agreed to the injunction in order to “proceed with determining the constitutionality of the salary increases authorized by Public Law 19-83.”

Attorney General Edward Manibusan has filed a civil case against the secretary, challenging the constitutionality of the increase.

Earlier this year, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres did not act on PL 19-83 within 40 days; that effectively made it into law.

PL 19-83 increases the salaries of the governor, lieutenant governor, and members of the Legislature by 80 percent and civil service employees by 5 percent. PL 19-83 has been in effect since this January.

The salary increases were met with opposition by 19th Legislature representatives Edwin Propst (Ind-Saipan), Edmund Villagomez (Ind-Saipan), Vinson Sablan (Ind-Saipan), Blas “BJ” Jonathan Attao (Ind-Saipan), and Ralph Yumul.

PL 19-83 became law in the middle of fiscal year 2017, therefore the budget then failed to appropriate the increase in salaries for the elected officials.

Discussions and deliberations for this coming fiscal year 2018 did not touch the appropriations for the increased salaries. However, it is reflected in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, starting Oct. 1, 2017.

That mired discussions on the fiscal year 2018 budget. The budget bill still passed the House, with Propst, Sablan, and Villagomez voting against the increases.

According to a previous interview with House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Angel Demapan (R-Saipan), the committee did not recommend against nor supported the increase since they are merely following PL 19-83. He added that without any “litigation ordering otherwise, the Ways and Means Committee is bound to abide by the law and [PL 19-83] set those new salary scales.”