BAJA CALIFORNIA.- The new governor of Baja California, Francisco "Kiko" Vega de Lamadrid, has quickly kept at least one campaign promise: lowering his own salary by about 17 percent, as well as that of most high-level officials in the executive branch.

[p]"We must put an end to any excess or waste. To start with, we will lower all salaries and wages for high-level officials in the State. There will be no more secret payrolls or magical benefits. Public wages will be dignified and professional, but privileges are to be done with", said the Governor during his inaugural ceremony. He also said then that the resulting savings would go towards education, health, housing, sports and wellbeing programs.

And this week, it was reveled via the official accountability website for the state government that Kiko Vega will earn approximately 110,000 pesos (8, 500 USD) a month, a 17 percent reduction compared to his predecessor José Guadalupe Osuna Millán's salary.

Another noticeable cut was for the Minister of Planning and Finance, Antonio Valladolid, who will now earn about 87,000 pesos (6,700 USD) a month, an cut of about 21%.

Within the rest of the Governor's cabinet, the Ministers for Tourism, Social Development, Labor and Social Prevention, Economic Development, Agricultural Development, Fishing and Environmental Protection, will each earn 80,000 monthly pesos (6,170 USD), an average cut of 7,000 pesos (540 USD) compared to the previous office holders.

When it comes to the State Interior Minister, the Attorney General and Public Safety Minister, they got a reduction of 7,000 and 9,000 monthly pesos.

The new "austerity" plan also takes into account better managing of public resources for cars, cellphones and other expenditures and others, which seeks to save upwards of 4 billion pesos (308,000,000 USD) in the next 6 years.

"Public finances are spent. We have designed an austerity and efficiency strategy. Responsibly and carefully, several non-essential or non-priority programs and structures will be wither eliminated, fused or transferred...Public money is your money. Citizens have every right to know what and where we spend the people's resources. My government will be very strict on transparency, accountability, spending control and official responsibilities", noted Francisco Vega some weeks ago about the issue.

*You can search and learn about wages for public officials here.

Brenda.Colon@sandiegored.com

jose.sanchez@sandiegored.com