Tarcísio postpones fight with Alesp amid wear and tear – 05/27/2023 – Politics

Amid the struggle to approve the increase in civil and military police, Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) avoided picking up other fights with the left and right in Alesp (Legislative Assembly of São Paulo) and postponed measures to reduce impacts on the Budget.

At the same time, the governor has defended the privatization of Sabesp and the downsizing of the state, with the sale of properties and assets, in addition to an administrative reform, to reduce expenses and allow investments.

The government’s initial proposal was to approve, in the same project, the salary readjustment and a change in the retirement of military police officers, which would increase the contribution of inactive officers. Caught by surprise with the text, deputies from the bullet bench, Tarcísio’s allies, protested, and the governor promptly withdrew the social security section.

The pendency, however, will have to be voted on in the House sooner or later. Giving up on approving the change in the contribution of inactive military personnel costs the state BRL 60 million per month, according to an estimate by the Palácio dos Bandeirantes.

According to deputies, the issue will generate clashes when it reaches the Assembly. The government wants to follow the federal model, which determines a 10.5% discount on the total remuneration of retired PMs.

The bullet bench, which represents Tarcísio’s electorate, defends maintaining an 11% discount on the salary portion that exceeds the INSS ceiling, which is R$ 7,507. For a police officer who receives BRL 8,000, the monthly contribution would increase from BRL 54 to BRL 840 in the government’s proposal.

Part of Tarcísio’s assistants believe that the governor should not have given in to the deputies — it would have been easier to approve the unpopular measure within the salary adjustment, a positive agenda, than later alone.

Members of the government claim, however, that the assessment was that voting on different agendas together would disrupt the process and that the priority was to recompose the salaries of the police.

“They were two different matters, we didn’t have to keep them together. Such a serious matter has to be debated, it couldn’t be hidden in another project. Captain Telhada (PL) on the issue of inactive employees.

The project to change the contribution of the inactive was, in fact, prepared by the Rodrigo Garcia (PSDB) management in October 2022, but, after the toucan lost the election, it was not sent to Alesp even though it was considered important.

“This justifies the urgency in this project to avoid the great loss of revenue, around R$ 60 million per month, starting next year”, says the text of the Executive.

Like the toucan, Tarcísio must also postpone the measure. According to assistants and deputies, there is no rush and the government has not even begun to discuss contribution models.

The cost of the increase for police officers will be BRL 2.5 billion in 2023, paid with the 2022 Budget surplus, and BRL 4.7 billion in the following years, paid with current revenue resources.

In a note, the government states that the amount “is within the expected parameters and the state’s fiscal situation”. In the project, the Executive says that personnel expenses will reach 38.7% —below the 46.55% limit of the Fiscal Responsibility Law.

On another front, the Tarcísio government intends to send a PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) to the Assembly to make minimum spending on education and health more flexible, but it has no prediction of when the text will be effectively put to the test in the House.

The measure faces opposition from the left – which, with about 25 of the 94 seats, is more expressive than in the last legislature and has given the government work with obstructions.

The state Constitution establishes that at least 25% of net income must be spent on education and 12% on health. Tarcísio wants the minimum for education to be 20%, as determined in the Federal Constitution, and that the excess 5% be obligatorily spent on education or health, giving room for flexibility depending on which area is needed.

As shown to Sheet, Tarcísio has already suffered an unexpected crisis by his assistants with the readjustment project for police officers — it was necessary to convince the bullet bench to vote in favor without adding any amendment to the text. Base deputies complain about the lack of dialogue, while they see claims for amendments and positions not being met by the governor.

Deputy leader of the government, Guto Zacarias (União Brasil) says that the approval of the increase in police officers, by 83 to 0, showed the strength of Tarcísio’s base and that the government acted well in postponing the issue of inactive people.

“From an economic point of view, it would be worth buying the fight, but from a political point of view, it would wear out more. I defend that what should always weigh is the economic side. But for the government, the less wear and tear the better, since it is a project that aims the captive electorate of the right”, he says.

So far, in addition to the LDO (Budget Guidelines Law), Tarcísio has sent four projects to the Assembly and all are consensual, approved with the support of the base and the opposition – such as an increase in the minimum wage in São Paulo and a readjustment for police officers.

The agenda at Alesp, therefore, is clean, awaiting new government projects. The proposals relating to the Budget, however, are thorny and may exacerbate the crisis of articulation that Tarcísio faced even in the positive projects.

In the case of the retirement of police officers, deputies claim that the governor should have reached a consensus before sending the proposal and that, as the measure was unexpected, he could only withdraw it.

“There was a lack of communication in this project. If the government had talked before, it could have been analyzed [a aposentadoria]but it ended up being later”, says deputy Conte Lopes (PL), who defends “working on a way to improve” the discount that the federal law adopts.

“This regulation [da contribuição dos inativos] should be made by the government, but not necessarily in the form presented now, without us knowing about the inclusion of this article. This surprise ended up taking the shine out of the salary recomposition project”, says Major Mecca (PL).