Senate bill would hike office allowances for Senators and House Reps

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Sens. Togiola T.A. Tulafono and Soliai Tuipine Fuimaono are sponsors of a Senate bill to increase the annual office allowance for lawmakers as well as legislation to increase the salaries of the governor and lieutenant governor.

The legislation for the office allowance raise is “effective immediately”, upon passage by the Fono and approval by the governor, according to language of the bill, which also says the funding source for these increases is the surplus of fiscal year 2020 from un-budgeted, unexpended and un-obligated revenues of ASG.

The bill was introduced Monday and assigned to committee for review.

LAWMAKER ALLOWANCES

Current law sets allowances for lawmakers at $40,000 each for the Fono leaders and $30,000 for members — and the Fono can raise the allowance for a current sitting Legislature.

The Senate bill seeks to increase the allowance for the Fono leaders to $60,000 each for the Senate President and House Speaker and hike to $45,000 allowances for Fono members.

Justification for the increases, according to the bill’s preamble, is that lawmakers have additional challenges to their duties and responsibilities as the new Fono building is under construction and they do not have any offices where they can conduct meetings.

Additionally, lawmakers must find spaces in their homes or meet at restaurants in order to conduct businesses. “This arrangement necessitates additional expenses” for senators and faipule, the preamble states.

While the allowance is not considered income and therefore is not taxed, the lawmaker can — if he/ she chooses to — designate the allowance as income, making it taxable (and thus subject to FICA withholding that earns credits for Social Security benefits, as well as all other tax deductions including the local retirement percentage deduction).

A separate Senate bill hiking the annual salaries of the Fono leaders — $30,000 to $45,000 and Fono members — from $25,000 to $40,000 — as well as for the Swains Island Delegate from $20,000 to $35,000, remains pending in a Senate committee. And if this measure becomes law, it will be effective in the 38th Legislature, which is January 2024.

GOV AND LT. GOV

For the salaries of the leaders of the Executive Branch, the new Senate bill seeks to increase the governor’s annual salary from $85,000 to $120,000 and lieutenant governor from $75,000 to $100,000.

Justification of the proposed pay hikes, according to the bill’s preamble, is that in additional to their regular duties and responsibility, COVID-19 has increased their workload exponentially from managing the coronavirus task force, to dealing on a daily basis with the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to dedicating more support for the ASG Medicaid Office, the Health Department and LBJ Medical Center.

The preamble also says that the “duties and responsibilities for all of our leaders for the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch will continue to increase and be precedent as the world moves forward with all efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Samoa News points out that this is the third legislation introduced this year in the Senate to hike the salaries of the governor and the lieutenant governor.

Earlier this year, during the First Regular Session Soliai, along with two other senators sponsored legislation to increase the governor’s salary to $150,000 and lieutenant governor to $125,000.

Then on Aug. 3rd — early this month — Soliai and Togiola sponsored legislation that would increase to $105,000 the governor’s salary while the lieutenant governor is proposed at $95,000 a year.

The effective date for the first-two bills for the salary increases of the governor and lieutenant governor is the “first day of the next Administration in 2026.” Both measures remain in committee.