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An appeal to the Legislature
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Posted on May 12 2005
It does not look like Governor Babauta is going to do anything about the power crisis in the CNMI any time soon (“Power plant runs out of fuel,” May 10), so I would like to address this letter to the legislators.
There is a controversy as to just how much the Babauta administration owes CUC for utilities, but I think it is safe to say that the administration would agree that the amount is at least $11 million. The Legislature is considering legislation to appropriate $11 million for salary increases of government employees (“Attao pushes for $11 M appropriation for WGI, retro pay,” May 9). This money should be appropriated and paid to CUC instead. With this payment, CUC can cancel the surcharge for the time being because the public just can’t afford to pay the 32-percent increase. I know of a senior citizen with a fixed income whose power bill has just been increased by a whopping $64 per month. Please, Legislature, have mercy on her and us!
Our government employees deserve their long-awaited annual pay increments and pay increases and other monetary benefits that they have not received since my administration but, please, now is not the time. Let the next administration address this problem.
The priority now is the power crisis. You in the legislature should understand that the CUC debt of the administration is as much your fault as it is the governor’s. The governor wouldn’t cut his budget somewhere and use the saving to pay CUC, so you must identify some revenues and appropriate it so that the governor can pay CUC. Obviously, $11 million is available somewhere.
Froilan C. Tenorio
Saipan
