Budget battle continues

The chair of the House Ways and Means Committee yesterday lashed out at the Senate’s insistence to press earmarking of $2 million for payment of so-called retroactive pay of government employees, saying this is mere “politicking.”

Instead, Rep. Antonio M. Camacho prodded senators to pass legislation he sponsored that will give option to those eligible under Public Law 7-31 to convert such payment to their retirement benefits.

“If we have the money, we will pay the retroactive pay but the way the budget works, it seems that they use the issue to promote their own programs,” he told reporters in an interview.

The Senate has cut the budget for FY 2001 of essential services by at least $10 million, such as the Department of Public Health and the Department of Public Safety, to provide for the needs of other programs it is endorsing.

Finance officials anticipate revenues of $221.66 million to run the government until September 30, 2001, but the Legislature has yet to approve the budget bill appropriating these cash resources.

Both houses are expected to go into bicameral conference after the House rejected this week Senate amendments to the measure, including allotment of $2 million for the salary hike that has long been awaited by close to 2,000 former and existing employees.

According to Mr. Camacho, these amendments have cut into spending level of several critical agencies, such as DPH whose funding went down by $4 million to $34 million under the Senate version of the budget.

“We cannot cut down public health because people are getting sick and you cannot turn them away. We are in deep financial situation but I will never agree to have health services reduced,” he said.

While he supports settlement of the claims for pay adjustment, the Saipan lawmaker maintained this can’t be done by forsaking needs of the people.

“But the thing that lies behind it is that they are politicking behind the retroactive pay in our budget,” he said, citing provisions that lapsed funds must go only to satisfy this purpose as well as the needs of Rota and Tinian.

“These are the things that need to be cleared,” he explained. “I am supporting retroactive pay but you cannot cut essential services since they are vital needs of the people.”

Other solution

Mr. Camacho appealed to the people that they are trying to find ways to address the problem, including introducing legislation like HB 12-126 which he authored.

The measure, if it becomes law, will give eligible recipients of PL 7-31 the option to elect for conversion of their entitlement to vesting service in the Retirement Fund. It is still pending in the upper house, he said.

Two other bills, offered by Rep. Jesus T. Attao also have been filed in the House in hopes to resolve the financial dilemma, one of which will set aside more than half of revenues from poker license fees for the salary of these employees.

“We have to be cautious in the way we spend our money because our economy is still in a decline,” said Mr. Camacho, adding the Senate increased the budget for Rota and Tinian municipalities to over $16 million each from the House proposal of $14.3 million each “at the expense of politics” on retroactive pay.

Despite the differences on the budget, he expressed optimism that both houses would be able to hammer out a compromise agreement as soon as possible.

Earlier, Fiscal Affairs Committee chair Sen. Edward U. Maratita said he is not willing to compromise on the $2 million funding.

House Floor Leader Oscar M. Babauta, on the other hand, said they would push reinstatement of $700,000 to finance lobbying campaign in Washington D.C., which the Senate took out in its budget proposal.