TO MEET DECLINING REVENUES Gov’t. asked to cut workhours

The powerful House Ways and Means Committee is likely to press the administration to further cut the government personnel costs under its proposed spending level for FY 2000 by implementing a reduction in the workhours to meet declining revenues.

Committee chair Rep. Karl T. Reyes said this is one area which they will consider in the deliberation of the budget proposal handed in by Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio last April.

“Maybe it’s time now to actually go into the reduction of hours,” he told in an interview yesterday, adding the committee may actually highlight the benefits to persuade the administration in taking this step.

“That could be one way but we’d rather see that this type of cut is implemented by the administration so that the request (is made to) the department heads and Cabinet members,” Reyes said.

The chairman believed that the financial crisis besetting the Commonwealth would still continue next year as the main tourism industry has yet to fully recover from the fallout of the economic turmoil in Asia, the island’s prime source of visitors.

Reyes earlier has pledged to look into personnel expenditures of the government as about 78 percent of the overall FY 2000 proposed spending level of $206 million have been earmarked to pay salaries and benefits of over 4,000 government employees.

So far, the representative has discovered conflicting figures in the budget proposal, including the amount set aside for rent payment by some government offices leasing in commercial space.

There is an excess of $2.4 million from the FY 1999 level allotted for this item, according to Reyes. “We will address those because some of them are reduction from the previous year, so I don’t know if there are other ways of taking care of the rental.”

But the budget review to be conducted by the Ways and Means Committee would probably focus on personnel costs as this has been the bone of contention in previous deliberations.

When asked if the amount will be trimmed to prevent cash shortfall, Reyes said “it’s only fair that everybody, all employees consider that… so that instead of having increases they remain in the same level and that’s the only way to prevent reduction in the workforce.”

The committee is expected to begin within the next few weeks scheduled hearing on the budget request by each department, particularly those from the Public School System, the Northern Marianas College, as well as the Departments of Public Safety, Public Health, Labor and Immigration and Public Works.

The Legislature has until September to approve the proposal submitted by the administration on April 1.

Reyes’ committee is tasked with the budget deliberation before it goes to the legislative floor for voting, which under the Constitution must be completed before the current fiscal year ends on September 30.

The FY 2000 spending package has already reflected a drop of about two percent from the revised budget last year, which has been attributed to the continuous harsh economic conditions in the island brought about by the Asian recession.