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PSS now exempted from hike in Fund contributions
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Posted on Nov 29 2005
The Public School System heaved a huge sigh of relief when House Bill 14-369, which would exempt them from paying the 12-percent hike in the employer contribution to the Retirement Fund, last week when Gov. Juan N. Babauta signed the bill into law.
Acting Commissioner of Education David M. Borja said the news was a very positive turn of events.
“Now we won’t have to worry about the $6.2 million composed of $4.5 million budget from local account and $1.7 million from federal account,” he said, adding that this money would eat up a huge chunk of their 2005–2006 budget proposal.
“We can now also be assured not to have the adverse impact to the number of people that are currently working in our programs—the SPED, Early Childhood. and the Head Start,” Borja said.
The $6.2 million savings from the exemption could be deducted from the $50-million budget proposal, Borja said. He added if the governor-elect Benigno R. Fitial would give PSS at least $44 million budget, the PSS would accept it gladly. “I believe we will do [with $43.8 million] very well,” he said.
Currently, the PSS is operating under the continuing resolution that gives them $37.2 million operational budget for the last five years now.
Two weeks ago the House of Representatives disapproved the Senate version of the bill allocating the budget to the PSS, which expressed earlier that it preferred the lower chamber’s version than the Senate version.
It was wrongly reported this week [not from Saipan Tribune] that the outgoing governor failed to sign the bill making it a law by default. Under the Legislative procedures a bill automatically becomes law on the 40th day after it is transmitted to the Governor’s Office for action and fails to act on it.
The bill was authored by Rep. David Apatang and co-authored by Reps. Jesus T. Attao, Arnold I. Palacios, and Benjamin Seman.
