{"id":317645,"date":"2020-02-18T06:05:34","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T20:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=317645"},"modified":"2020-02-18T06:05:34","modified_gmt":"2020-02-17T20:05:34","slug":"lee-pan-spare-some-govt-employees-from-work-hour-cut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/lee-pan-spare-some-govt-employees-from-work-hour-cut\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee Pan: Spare some govt employees from work hour cut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rep. Joseph \u201cLee Pan\u201d Guerrero (R-Saipan) believes that cutting work hours as part of the austerity regime should be done from the top and that low-wage employees should be spared.<\/p>\n

In an interview last week, Guerrero said the first thing that the Torres administration needs to ascertain is the employees\u2019 salary and he feels that those making $18,000 to $20,000 per annum need to be spared from the cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not right if we cut them as well and they can\u2019t be able to meet their financial obligations,\u201d Guerrero said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Joseph \u201cLee Pan\u201d Guerrero<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The administration earlier said that the decision to implement the 64-hour work schedule is based on an estimated revenue loss of $48.3 million, blamed on the coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n

Guerrero said Gov. Ralph DLG Torres should look at his Cabinet in implementing austerity measures. \u201cIn fairness, you start from the top, not from the bottom. If a cut has to be done, it has to be done from the top. How can you cut somebody in the bottom when they\u2019re suffering [already]? \u2026It\u2019s not fair,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Guerrero said they have implemented cost-cutting measures at the Legislature as well.<\/p>\n

He said both Senate and the House of Representatives must continue with their sessions, regardless of funding issues, because it is vitally important that they introduce and pass legislations that would improve the coffers of the CNMI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s very important right now. We need to be mindful of what we can do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Guerrero said one thing that they have placed on the table for discussions is the sin tax for cigarette, beer, and liquor. He pointed out that, even with the sin tax and the increased prices, people would still buy these items. He cited the case of cigarettes, in which a pack is almost $10 apiece, yet people continue buying it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same thing with liquor. These are something that we\u2019re exploring to see and come up with new revenue,\u201d Guerrero said.<\/p>\n

The lawmaker said if they don\u2019t come up with new revenue generating legislation, the CNMI\u2019s economy would continue to go down because of the coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n

With respect to the House members\u2019 closed door meeting last Monday with Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig, Guerrero said it was done to clarify the definite percentage of the cuts at the Legislature.<\/p>\n

He said that, according to Atalig, it\u2019s 28.3%, but what they are seeing from the Office of Management and Budget is totally different.<\/p>\n

\u201cOMB is showing us 56[%). It\u2019s [higher]. I don\u2019t know how they quantify their numbers. But when you have two conflicting figures from Finance and OMB\u2026which one do we follow?\u201d Guerrero said.<\/p>\n

He said that, according to Atalig, his 28.3% is justified but not the 56%.<\/p>\n

Guerrero said they asked Atalig whether he is aware of the submission from OMB regarding the budget reduction that was submitted to the Legislature and a copy was provided to Atalig\u2019s office, the governor, and the lieutenant governor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was what the meeting was all about\u2014clarification on what is the proportionate cuts for the Legislature,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Guerrero said they need to know because they have to adjust their office\u2019s operation. \u201cDo we need to reduce the employees\u2019 salaries? Or do we need to let go of some employees? Because absent adequate funding, the operations of our office cannot continue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Guerrero said the Legislative Bureau is now looking into their budget numbers to make sure that the bureau is not hampered in terms of operation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Joseph \u201cLee Pan\u201d Guerrero (R-Saipan) believes that cutting work hours as part of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-317645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317645","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}