Mexican politicians are often accused of money grabbing, but in keeping with the tough economic times and campaign promises of tighter controls on spending, Guadalajara metropolitan area mayors have all decided to reduce their salaries.
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Zapopan Mayor Hector Vielma Ordoñez leads the field by donating all his 135,000-peso pre-tax monthly salary to what he calls “social assistance.”
Vielma donated his first paycheck of his administration to aid the Haiti earthquake disaster.
The mayor of Tlaquepaque, Miguel Castro Reynoso, will reduce his salary by 50 percent, taking it from 61,000 pesos to 30,500, both pre-tax.
In Guadalajara, Mayor Aristoteles Sandoval has been less drastic and reduced the salary of all high-end state employees by ten percent. His own salary goes down from 135,000 pesos to just under 122,000 pesos.
Even with the cuts, the mayors, Vielma aside, still make way above the 6,700 pesos average wage for a Jalisco worker.
For those living in the working-class Villa Guerrero neighborhood of Guadalajara, the mayors’ gesture has gone down well, but suspicions remain.
“I think it’s an excellent idea,” said Eva Anades, who added that during the last year she suffered from static income but increasing food prices for her family. “Here in Mexico we have little trust in politicians, but it shows they are starting to understand, a least a little.”
Added mechanic Marco Ramirez: “I hope that this can influence other government officials who make a lot to do something similar.”
At the corner store at Isla Izaro and Patria, owner Manuel Castro agreed that cutting government salaries is positive, but doesn’t believe that it will signal a major shift in politicians “greedy” thinking.
“Politicians always know what to do and say. I think we need to see a lot more effort like this before we can say that our politicians are genuinely working for the people.”
All of the Guadalajara metropolitan areas mayors are now from the Institutional Revolution Party (PRI), bar Tlajomulco’s mayor who is from Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
The issue of large government salaries has come to the fore since the financial crisis, with senior government figures receiving heavy criticism for their large salaries.
The Alliance of Citizen Organizations (ADOC) has demanded that, considering this year’s increase in taxation, finance for political parties should be reduced by 50 percent and government officials in the first three levels of government should have their salary reduced by 30 percent.
President Felipe Calderon’s left-wing nemesis Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has stated that such cuts could provide money for improved public services, as opposed to partially privatizing PEMEX, the state-run petroleum company.
Guillermo Ortiz Mayagoitia will be the highest paid federal government employee in 2010, a recent study entitled the Analysis of Federal Outgoings 2010 has shown. The president of the Supreme Court and president of the Federal Judiciary will make a net salary of almost nine million pesos.
A staggering 153 public servants will receive a bigger salary than Calderon, who stands to make a gross salary of just over three million pesos in 2010.{reg}
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