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Saipan mayor weighs wage cut, shortened working time
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Posted on Mar 11 1999
The Office of Saipan Mayor is planning to carry out a 10 percent across-the-board salary reduction or a seven-hour per day work in a move to save operations amid shrinking revenue.
Although the Mayor’s office has not made any decision on when it would implement a salary cut, officials already met two weeks ago to discuss the plan. Fiscal and Budget officer Ray Diaz could not be contacted for comment on the alleged plan.
Based on the plan, the Mayor’s Office will be able to save some 167,831.55 for the year if it would adopt a 10 percent salary reduction. But it would be able to save $208,290.50 should it implement a seven-hour work per day scheme.
There are currently 78 employees at the Mayor’s Office receiving a total of $1.58 million in salaries, or 65 percent of the $2.4 million budget it received for fiscal year 1999.
When Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio submitted a revised budget for this fiscal year, he ordered a 13.4 percent budget cut in all government offices due to declining revenue. This means that the appropriation for the Office of Saipan Mayor would drop to 2.1 million.
The anticipated decline in revenues brought down government projections from $246 million to $216 million.
Earlier, the Office of the Tinian Mayor had asked the employees to cut by one hour the services they rendered to cope with tight budget. Tinian Mayor Francisco M Borja said a further reduction in working hours may be made if revenue collections continue to drop.
Likewise, the Commonwealth Ports Authority had decided to carry out the working hours of employees from 80 to 72 hours per pay period starting April 1, 1999 to give the ports authority a saving amounting to $555,000 for one year.
CPA revenues had continuously declined due to the plunge of the island’s tourism economy brought about by Asia’s financial crisis. The ports authority had to carry out various cost-cutting measures to be able to continue operations and pay for financial obligations.
Last month, CPA board raised the seaport rates, charges and fees effective July 1, 1999. It also increased the airport landing fees and passenger rates starting March 1, 2000.
