Santos, Ind.-Rota said former government employees who are now in their “golden years” are entitled to salary adjustment given them by Public Law 7-31 or the Commonwealth Compensation Adjustment Salary Act which took effect in May 1991.
Even when Public Law 14-73 was enacted to waive the statute of limitation to ensure the former employees get their money, many have yet to receive what is due to them.
Santos said that these former employees will never get their retroactive raise if it goes through a probate.
She said the cost of court fees alone will “exhaust” all this.
That is why Santos said she introduced House Bill 17-251 that seeks to allow surviving beneficiaries of former government employees to receive the 20-year retroactive pay raise in case of the former employees’ untimely death.
Asked which source of funding can be tapped to make this happen, Santos said she is aware that at least on Rota, there are the poker license fees that can be used to pay surviving heirs of eligible former government employees.
Right now, she said Rota has 41 poker units. Although the number dropped from 59 units last year, the retroactive money for former government employee on Rota can be derived from there.
Speaker Eli D. Cabrera, R-Saipan in an interview last Friday said the unpaid salary raise of government employees, many of them have retired, is among the issues the casino revenues will address.
He said these former employees are among those the government owes money to and the legalization of casinos on Saipan is one of the top solutions to the problem.
