No salary hike for lawmakers, 16-hour cut in first quarter

House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Ray Basa (Cov-Saipan) and other lawmakers said yesterday that the latest draft of the fiscal year 2012 budget bill does not increase lawmakers’ constitutionally protected salary of $39,300 annually, contrary to a report published in the other newspaper yesterday.

“Lawmakers’ salaries are constitutionally protected so there’s no way we can change our salaries—whether increase or decrease without a change in the Constitution,” Basa told Saipan Tribune.

The CNMI Constitution gives an annual salary of $39,300 for all members of the Legislature—House and Senate.

While the salaries remain the same, Basa said the benefits have increased, mainly because of increased contribution to the NMI Retirement Fund and the increase is not something that goes to lawmakers’ pockets.

Draft 4 of the budget bill shows that the 20 House members’ salaries total $986,037, but this is inclusive of the $39,000 in annual salary of each member and the retirement and other benefits.

The draft bill’s total salary and retirement contribution, along with other benefits, is more than the fiscal year 2011 budget law’s $954,597 and Basa said this is because of the Ways and Means’ decision to heed the Retirement Fund’s request to increase employer contribution to the pension system, among other things.

The same is true for the Senate members’ salaries and benefits.

Rep. Edmund Villagomez (Cov-Saipan) said he will seek clarification on the matter during today’s leadership meeting, and would suggest that the lawmakers’ constitutionally-mandated salaries be separated from the retirement contributions and other benefits in making budget bills, so as not to confuse the public.

Basa said he plans to pre-file the budget bill today and expects that there might be floor amendments to it during a session planned for Friday.

His bill also retains the biweekly 16-hour work cuts but at least for the first quarter of 2012 or from October to December. If not enough additional resources are identified in the first quarter, the 16-hour work cut will continue in the following quarters.

The draft bill also requires unpaid government holidays.

Rep. Joseph Palacios (R-Saipan) said he would like to propose that holiday pays be restored. “It’s bad enough that employees have 16 hours cut, so I am suggesting we restore holiday pay,” he said.

Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s proposed $102 million budget for 2012 gives the Senate and House leadership accounts $300,000 each, but Basa’s committee pared this down to $138,000 for the House and $110,396 for the Senate in the fourth and latest draft of the bill.

Prior to this latest bill, the leadership account was at $300,000, much higher than the 2011 appropriation of $138,000.

Each House member’s allocation or operational account has been reduced from $85,000 under PL 17-21 to $51,575 in the latest 2012 budget draft.

Each senator’s annual allocation will also be $51,575 in the draft 2012 bill, also a drop from $85,000 in the 2011 budget law.

The latest draft also shows that the government will lower its utility payments from $7.5 million in 2011 to only $4.75 million in 2012.

The draft bill also bans hiring of new employees, except for critical and emergency positions, as long as work hours and wages are reduced.

The administration has lowered the budget of $102 million because it anticipates that the Department of Public Health will already be turned into a corporation by the start of fiscal year 2012 on Oct. 1.