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$30K eyed for suspended salary hikes
Lifting the austerity measures that have been in place since 2001 under the term of former governor Pedro P. Tenorio has set in motion the review and planned implementation of salary increases that Gov. Eloy S. Inos said yesterday would cost only some $30,000 for just about three dozen civil service employees.
This, however, does not cover within-grade increases, among other things, which the governor said could cost the government between $5 million and $6 million a year.
“What happened was, some people have been promoted and reclassified but were never given the corresponding salary increase. What that does—the lifting of austerity—is to let that go so that people can receive those additional salaries as a result of that [promotion, reclassification],” the governor said in an interview yesterday.
When asked whether the government can now afford these salary adjustments, Inos said, “Yes.”
“But that’s only a small amount…Probably about $30,000…Only few are affected by this…Maybe about 30,” Inos said.
In a statement, the Civil Service Commission said it intends to announce the lifting of its Nov. 8, 2001 suspension on salary increases in the upcoming Commonwealth Register.
But this does not affect the ongoing suspension of annual within-grade increases, merit increases and Public Law 10-76 bonuses for employees frozen at Step 12 in their grade.
Tourism arrivals have been picking up, bringing additional revenues to the CNMI coffers. The governor’s proposed fiscal year 2015 budget is $134 million, up from the 2014 budget of $123.4 million. Because of an expected 2014 supplemental budget of $12 million, the 2015 budget may even be bigger if there’s also going to be a supplemental budget.
But the governor said government agencies and departments still need to spend within their means or stay within their allotted budget, because increases in revenues are mostly going to satisfy the government’s annual payments to the retirement settlement trust fund and government health insurance premium.
