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Governor vetoes bill raising salary caps for professionals
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Posted on Aug 12 2008
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial has disapproved a bill that seeks to provide flexibility in the compensation paid to licensed professionals employed by the CNMI government.
In his letter to the Legislature, Fitial stated that, although the bill’s intent—to ensure the availability of needed professional services for the Commonwealth, particularly vital health care services—is commendable, he is concerned that the bill’s language “is too broad and too vague.”
The governor asked the Legislature to develop a more specifically targeted and narrowly defined bill that would define “professionals” under the legislative and judicial branches, in view of the scarce resources and limited ability to provide higher employee compensation.
House Bill 16-30, introduced by Rep. Heinz Hofschneider, was passed by the Senate and the House. It aims to attract and retain qualified professionals “to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.”
Press secretary Charles Reyes Jr. said that Fitial was concerned with a specific provision in the bill involving undefined “professionals” in the legislative and judicial branches.
Reyes said the bill proposes to extend the salary cap for these undefined professionals to $60,000 per year.
“We wanted language in the bill that would clearly and specifically state who would be those professionals and what the qualifications and requirements would be,” he said.
In the absence of those requirements, Reyes said, the governor was not comfortable signing the bill into law.
The Office of Personnel Management and the Civil Service Commission reportedly opposed the legislation, citing the same reason.
