THE austerity bill, once passed, is for the remaining two months of the current fiscal year 2010 but it will remain in effect in FY 2011, according the House Ways and Means Chairman Ramon S. Basa.
FY 2011 starts on Oct. 1.
The bicameral conference committee, Basa said, will meet on Monday to discuss, “hopefully for the last time,” House Bill 17-45 which seeks to cut government work hours from 80 to 72.
The measure was supposed to be passed by the House and the Senate early this week, but it was sent back to the conference committee after the administration raised concerns about the proposed exemptions.
Basa, Covenant-Saipan, said he and the other members of the conference committee will try to wrap it up on Monday so the bill can be included in the calendar for Tuesday’s session.
He said the conference committee will act on the concerns raised by the administration by including the administrative staff of the Public School System and Northern Marianas College in the austerity measure.
According to Basa, they are also considering more flexibility in implementing austerity — a non-working day each pay period may not necessarily fall on Friday as long as the eight-hour reduction takes effect.
Basa said once things are finalized on Monday, the bill will pass the House as drafted because no motion for amendment will be entertained during the session on Tuesday.
Comments
CNMI budget should be for only the very necessary and not anything else. I'm not sure we even have enough CNMI revenues for all that is necessary—so then we should be seeking federal grants to fill in the necessary that we can't cover, and to provide the extras that improve efficiency or provide better services not otherwise available.
But primerabesis is right —we need long term planning because economic recovery hasn't even started to happen and will take time.
Must deal with the issue of "nice to have" more secretaries than your ego could take versus "must have" devices like celery phones even for school janitors.