QUERÉTARO, Qro (Proceso.com.mx) – Querétaro’s congressmen (diputados) silently and behind closed doors, approved an increase in their own salary, which went from 47 thousand pesos (2.2 thousand USD) to 85 thousand (4.1 thousand USD) per month, resulting in an incredible raise of 80.85%, which is materially insulting to the people of this state, and the rest of Mexico.
With this wage increase, the legislature will expend an additional 11.4 million pesos (556 thousand USD) per year, in salaries of their 25 state legislators.
Deputy Roberto Cabrera Valencia, president of the Chamber of Deputies, explained to local media that, this increase was authorized since June, 2016 by the previous legislature, which ended on September 25, 2016.
Cabrera Valencia stated: “The Political Coordinator Board (Junta de Concilación Política) took a decision in this matter and made an agreement with the 57th legislature, which determined a monthly wage increase from 47 thousand to 85 thousand pesos, effective Friday, June 16, 2017″.
However, none of the legislators (from the LVII legislature) made this “salary adjustment” public, until Wednesday Feb. 8 2017, when the Transparency section of the LVIII Legislature website was updated.
In this regard, deputy Herlinda Vázquez Munguía, member of the Morena party, considered this increase an excess, and declared that she and some of her fellow members of Congress will propose the Political Coordination Board to decry this “agreement”.
Vazquez Munguía added: “I find this embarrassing, especially at this moment when the country is in a critical situation, when cuts to education and health are projected, this is absolutely unacceptable”.
On the other hand, in an interview with Proceso.com, the President of the Board, Roberto Cabrera Valencia said that, “members of the local congress are open to the possibility of reducing their own salaries. In fact they foresee a reduction of the budget of the Legislative Power up to 30% for next year”.
Source: http://www.proceso.com.mx/