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House thrashes out teacher salary bill
Tuesday,
May 6, 2008
The fate of the teacher salary bill is now in the hands of the House of Representatives.
The House approved the bill in second reading with amendments today and is set to take a final vote tomorrow. The Senate approved the bill in third reading today with amendments. The House and Senate versions differ and if the bill is approved by the house tomorrow, a conference committee would be held to discuss the differences. It’s not clear cut how the House will vote. Judging from questions and comments made by Representatives during questioning of ASG witnesses this morning, several members have reservations about the government’s ability to finance the increase in teacher salaries. Vice Speaker Agaoleatu Charlie Tautolo asked why DOE cant wait till the new fiscal year to implement the salary increases once funds are included in next year’s budget. The DOE Director Dr. Claire Poumele said teachers have been waiting for salary increases which have been proposed for some time now. Last year they were told to wait till this year. It’s now May and the reclassification plan is just now being reviewed. She said there was money in the budget now to implement the salary increases for teachers.
Budget Director Magalei Logovii said for the remainder of the current fiscal year the increases would cost more than $700,000. He said that anticipated unspent revenues in DOE’s FY08 budget would be half a million dollars and only $382,000 in local funds would be spent on the pay increases. The rest will come from federal funds. At the same time there will be leftover funds to pay for unforeseen expenditures to carry DOE through the end of the fiscal year. The unspent funds were derived from vacancies created by retirements and resignations, which have not been filled. Agaoletu said he doesn’t dispute that teachers deserve higher salaries and he appreciates their service. But he asked what happens if there are no unexpended funs at the end of the year. How are we going to pay these raises. Representative Archie Soliai pointed out that for the past several years, the Budget Office has cut budget requests for departments. He questioned how the Budget Office could accommodate the higher wage bill for DOE when it has been slashing department budgets.
Magalei said that the DOE budget for fiscal year 2009 would include the salary increases and ASG had to come up with the local share to pay for the teacher salaries. Speaker of the House Savali Talavou Ale hammered the ASG officials on why only the entry level salaries were included in the bill and not all of the step increments for each position. He was also skeptical about setting the salaries by law saying it would pose difficulty making any changes. After the ASG witnesses were excused viewpoints were divided on whether to report the bill to the full house for a second reading today or hold off until tomorrow. Reps Mase Akapo Akapo and Gaoteote Palaie said time was short and the House should act quickly on this very important bill. The Chairman of the House Budget and Appropriations Committee Rep. Laolagi Vaeao said brevity of time was not the House’s fault. He said the special session was in its fourth ay before the bill was submitted. He said the House needs to carry out a thorough review of the legislation. Agaoleatu also proposed holding off on a vote until tomorrow but sensing that there was strong support for jute bill to be reported for second reading today, withdrew his motion.
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