Instead of re-imposing austerity Fridays, he said the governor should stop hiring new employees.
“They bamboozled us with figures that turned out to be inaccurate,” Palacios said in an interview on Friday. “The administration told us that the government would save $15 million, but because too many exemptions were granted, we ended up ‘saving’ only $2.5 million and demoralizing the government employees who weren’t included in the exemptions.”
Palacios, R-Saipan, said no “reasonable criteria were used in granting the exemptions — it just wasn’t fair to the affected employees.”
In FY 2007, when the austerity Fridays were first implemented, the speaker said the Public School System, Northern Marianas College, the Departments of Public Safety and Public Health were exempted.
“That’s already more than half of the government’s total workforce,” he added. “And other agencies also exempted their favored employees.”
Palacios said the proposed re-imposition of austerity Fridays is the “main sticking point” between the House of Representatives and the Senate when they convene a conference committee this week to draft a compromise budget bill for fiscal year 2009, which started on Oct. 1.
“A compromise is doable,” he added. “It’s just a matter of where to shift money and what our priorities should be.”
The House supports the Senate proposal to impose a government hiring freeze and require legislative approval for any new hirings, Palacios said.
The governor last week said this will “tie” his hands.
The speaker noted, however, that despite the current austerity measures in place, the governor continues to hire new employees.
“Look at our session calendars — all of them mention messages from the governor informing us of another new hire,” Palacios said. “This certification process has become a farce. He’s just telling us what he already did. There is no freeze hiring and then we tell the people the government has no money.”
According to Press Secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr., “the previous austerity measures, which had never been implemented before, did reduce spending and the administration has reduced the budget considerably since taking office as a matter of necessity. This is the leanest government we have ever had. Contrary assertions are nothing but political posturing and they are not credible.”
