{"id":22291,"date":"2012-06-22T07:53:26","date_gmt":"2012-06-22T07:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newspaper.ctsi-logistics.com\/?p=22291"},"modified":"2012-06-22T07:53:26","modified_gmt":"2012-06-22T07:53:26","slug":"bill-seeks-to-cut-retired-officials-judges-3-pct-annual-pension-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/bill-seeks-to-cut-retired-officials-judges-3-pct-annual-pension-increase\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill seeks to cut retired officials, judges’ 3-pct. annual pension increase"},"content":{"rendered":"
To help prolong the NMI Retirement Fund’s lifespan so that retirees will continue to get their pensions, a lawmaker is now drafting a bill seeking to remove the annual 3 percent increase in pension of \u201call\u201d retired elected officials, judges and justices, as well as cap at $25,000 annually the pension received by surviving spouses.<\/span><\/div>\n

In an election year, it is hard to expect any of the lawmakers to \u201cdo the right thing\u201d to help save the Fund, but Rep. Joseph Palacios (R-Saipan) said yesterday the CNMI cannot afford to sit idly by while most retirees lose their pension if nothing is done to address unfunded liabilities.<\/p>\n

Some retirees that would be affected by Palacios’ proposal declined to comment yesterday, saying they would wait for the bill to be finalized.<\/p>\n

Under Palacios’ proposal, all retired elected officials, judges, and justices will no longer receive the 3-percent annual increase in their pension which he said is one of the unfunded liabilities that need to be eliminated.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if they served 10 or 20 years in office, you multiply 10 or 20 by 3 percent, that’s 30 percent or 60 percent on top of their regular pension,\u201d he said, adding that he will also meet with retirees and stakeholders on the proposal.<\/p>\n

Another of his proposal is to cap at $25,000 the pension amount that a surviving spouse of a retiree can receive.<\/p>\n

Palacios cited that a surviving spouse of a former official has been receiving $80,000 or 50 percent of that former official’s annual salary.<\/p>\n

He said this is unfair to most retirees receiving less than $25,000 in pension annually. His proposal is to cap the surviving spouse’s annual pension at $25,0000.<\/p>\n

Palacios, at the same time, said only the Legislature can reduce retirees’ regular pension, and not the Executive Branch.<\/p>\n

Press secretary Angel Demapan said the Fitial administration’s pension recovery and survival plan does not seek to reduce pension.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor and lieutenant governor propose to continue the current pension amount and fund 50 percent through line-item appropriation,\u201d he had said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To help prolong the NMI Retirement Fund’s lifespan so that retirees will continue to get…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[33,26],"class_list":["post-22291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-angel-demapan","tag-cnmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22291\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}