“We’re going to entertain that bill this Friday. Personally, I want to kill that bill. That’s my position,” Tenorio, Covenant-Saipan, told the Variety yesterday.
The original version of H.B. 17-45, which Rep. Ramon S. Basa, Covenant-Saipan, introduced will reduce government payroll by 12.5 percent throughout the remainder of FY 2010 which ends on Sept. 30, 2010.
But the Senate version removed the work-hour reduction provision and instead proposed three unpaid holidays, higher taxes on cigarettes, beer, the use of mobile phones and ATM machines. It will also raise the license fees for poker machines and reduce the tax rebate rate from 90 to 80 percent from 2011 through 2014.
Tenorio said the Senate substitute bill was not properly framed because it contained two separate subjects — unpaid legal holidays and revenue enhancing measures.
“Under the Constitution, a bill can only consider one subject,” he said.
The original bill aimed to immediately stop the “bleeding” in the government’s finances while the Senate version will take time to generate the needed additional revenue, the speaker added.
Senate President Paul A. Manglona, Ind.-Rota, in a separate interview, said the speaker should not be “too technical.”
The senators believe that a work-hour austerity measure will further harm government employees who are already suffering from the economic crisis.
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