In an interview, Basa, Covenant-Saipan, said elected officials currently can only volunteer to reduce their salaries. There must be a law that will mandate them to share the pain with everybody, he added.
That is why he supports Senate Legislative Initiatives 17-5 and 17-6 that the House Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operation is expected to put on the calendar in the next House session.
Introduced by Senate President Paul A. Manglona, Ind.-Rota, the initiatives seek to allow for the reduction of the salaries of the governor, lt. governor, lawmakers, justices and judges in times of austerity, shutdown, furlough and other measures that result in paycuts.
Their salaries are currently protected by the CNMI Constitution.
Senate Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes, R-Saipan, disclosed last week that the Senate’s substitute fiscal year 2012 budget bill will impose a higher tax on elected officials so they can share the pain of those suffering from the 16-hour cut and payless paydays.
But Basa said this tax is discriminatory. The income tax, he added, is imposed uniformly.
“You can’t tax one group this rate and allow another group to pay a different rate. Everybody has to pay the same rate of taxes. That is my understanding of what the income tax is,” he said.
Basa said it may not be unconstitutional to impose a higher tax on election officials,
“but to me there’s something wrong with that proposal.”
That is not the way tax rates work, he added.
Reyes said his proposal will result in more funding for the Public School System and Northern Marianas College.
The House, too, supports education, Basa said.
“But we are all in a crisis. We are in a time that everybody is going to get a cut. We cannot avoid that now,” he said, adding that he does not think Reyes’s proposal will get the approval of the House.
Unrealistic
Basa also does not think it is realistic to “zero” the leadership account and the lawmakers’ allocations to provide more funding for PSS and NMC as proposed by the Senate.
Basa said such a proposal will hurt Tinian and Rota lawmakers more.
“If they want to do that, I’m ready to accept that. But my worry is how the senators from Rota and Tinian would be able to fund their trips if we are going to zero it out. That is what they get their money to pay for their trips to attend sessions here,” he said.
Right now, he added, all lawmakers need to work together to come up with new revenue-generating measures.
