House Minority Leader Diego T. Benavente, R-Saipan, in an interview yesterday said he and his colleagues in the minority will continue to oppose House Bill 17-45 as re-drafted by the House-Senate conference committee.
The Republican minority has nine members in the 20-seat House.
Sen. Jovita M. Taimanao, Ind.-Rota, said the Senate will pass the bill endorsed by the conference committee.
The members of the House minority met yesterday, and although some of them who are on the House Ways and Means Committee appeared to support the bill, Benavente is certain that most of his Republican colleagues will argue against the measure’s passage.
He said the austerity bill was discussed only by a few lawmakers.
Benavente said he supports the effort to avoid another payless payday by giving 100 percent reprogramming authority to the governor.
But, he added, cutting the salaries of government employees will mean cutting public services.
“If you are going to be shutting down the Manamko’ Center, for example, for one Friday, you are basically eliminating one day of service provided by that office,” he explained.
People are now living from payroll to payroll and taking away part of their income will hurt families, Benavente said.
The proponents of the austerity bill, he added were not willing to consider other alternatives.
Benavente believes there are programs that can be sacrificed.
“We can at least not fund those for now,” he said.
He did not identify these programs.
It’s too bad, he said, that the House leadership “killed” the resolution he introduced earlier this year calling for a budget summit so that the administration, the Legislature, government departments and agencies could determine which programs were no longer needed.
