Daily Black Immigrant News
Senate Treasury Committee President Juan Zaragoza Gómez warned that it may be difficult for the House of Representatives to override Governor Pedro Pierluisi’s veto of Senate Bill 563, which proposes raising the minimum wage for public employees to $10.50 in hour. on a staggered basis, and which was vetoed on 25 August.
The legislator explained that 18 votes were needed in his legislative body, which were achieved with the popular delegations, the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), the Civic Victory Movement (MVC), the Dignity Project (PD), independent senator José Vargas. Vidot and the vote of the New Progressive William Villafañe Ramos. However, the story is not the same in the lower house, as 34 votes are needed to achieve the task of overriding the veto. Although between the popular majority – which included the now independent lawmaker Luis Raul Torres Cruz – and representatives of the PIP, MVC and PD, four votes from the New Progressive Party (PNP) are still needed.
“There’s been some behavior there… They haven’t necessarily behaved, in the year and a half that we’ve been in, as a bloc. There have been some circumstances where President ‘Tatito’ Hernández has made people pass to approve measures, but it is more complicated than in the Senate, which was only one person, “said the lawmaker.
In response to Governor Pedro Pierluisi’s interest in waiting for the publication of a salary plan, in addition to his statement that it is not in line with the fiscal plan, Zaragoza Gómez indicated that this would not mean the end, but that it would be necessary to justify where the funds for said increase will come from.
Likewise, he reported that at the moment, the proposed tables for determining the salary have 15 categories which will in one way or another fluctuate in all government agencies and that four of the 15 are below the minimum wage. , when applied, part of the sector of public employees will not have a fair minimum wage, while other persons are not even foreseen in the plan that the governor asks to be studied to receive the said increase.
“We did a calculation… There are two hundred or some thousands of public employees, not including the municipalities. We estimate it should be 10 [o] 12 thousand employees who have been affected […] And we estimate that the effect in the first year, that first jump, could be $5, $6, $7 million for a full year… […] The second jump, yes, already has a greater impact. It could be thirty or so, 40 million dollars,” the lawmaker reported when asked in “Tell me the truth” about the economic impact that the increase in workers’ wages would have on the fiscal plan, while emphasizing that it would not be large .
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NewsAmericasNow.com
