64% of the revenue goes to 3,3% of the population. Is that fair?

Governor Marcelo Miranda (PMDB) launched a battle of communication and justice, mainly to show that Tocantins would have no legal, financial, or moral possibility of committing 64% of its net revenue to maintain approximately 50 public servants; essential to the state apparatus, but representing only 3,3% of the population of a state with 1,5 million inhabitants, of whom 47% suffer from food insecurity and 10,21% are below the poverty line; the benefits package generated by former governor Sandoval Cardoso (SD) was born illegally, and the government went to court for its annulment; with 40% of the budget frozen and investment close to zero this year, the government is considering the overall management, but begins with its greatest test, that of avoiding its collapse.

February 13, 2015, 10:34 PMUpdated May 27, 2019, 09:28 AM

Governor Marcelo Miranda (PMDB) launched a battle of communication and justice, mainly to show that Tocantins would not have the legal, financial, and moral possibility of committing 64% of its net revenue to maintain approximately 50 public servants; fundamental to the state apparatus, but representing only 3,3% of the population of a state with 1,5 million inhabitants, of whom 47% suffer from food insecurity and 10,21% are below the poverty line; the benefits package generated by former governor Sandoval Cardoso (SD) was born illegally, and the government went to court for its annulment; with 40% of the budget contingent and investment close to zero this year, the government is thinking about the overall management, but begins with its greatest test, that of avoiding its collapse (Photo: Aquiles Lins).

Tocantins 247 – After 43 days in office, the government of Marcelo Miranda (PMDB) decided to wage a communication battle with the population, attempting to explain as clearly as possible the conditions under which he received the state's Executive Power. A day later, he took the first step in also waging a legal battle, filing lawsuits against former governor Sandoval Cardoso (SD) and nine former aides.

The reason for the legal action is not so much the accumulated debts in the government departments, which exceed R$ 1 billion and have practically sealed the fate of any investment in this first year of Marcelo Miranda's third term. Rather, it concerns the benefits granted to public servants by Sandoval Cardoso during his nine-month interim term.

In the lawsuits, the State Attorney General's Office (PGE) asserts that Sandoval and his former secretaries - Lúcio Mascarenhas (Administration), Joaquim Júnior (Finance), Márcio Correia (Health), Adriana Aguiar (Education), Eliú Jurubeba (Security), Miuky Hyashida (Ruraltins), Stalin Júnior (Naturatins), and Marcelo Inocente (Adapec) - violated the Federal Constitution, the State Constitution, the Fiscal Responsibility Law (LRF), and the Penal Code (read more).

The Fiscal Responsibility Law (LRF) stipulates that personnel expenses of the Executive Branch should, in a prudent government, be 46,55% of its Net Current Revenue (RCL), which is, roughly speaking, the sum of everything the State collects and receives in transfers from the Union, minus the amounts constitutionally transferred to municipalities and other amounts provided for by law. The ceiling for spending on public employees can never exceed 49% of the RCL.

2014 already in the red.

Under Sandoval Cardoso's administration, the Tocantins state government ended last year spending 50,93% of its net revenue to pay the salaries of approximately 50 civil servants, including those hired through competitive exams, contracted employees, and appointed officials. In Brazilian reais, this amounted to R$ 3,07 billion, which translates to an average monthly payroll of R$ 255 million. Sandoval did not pay the last salary, for December, leaving it to Marcelo.

According to calculations by the State Attorney General, Sérgio do Vale, in lawsuits filed in court, if all the benefits granted by former Governor Sandoval Cardoso were implemented starting in January, whose payroll was paid at midnight this Friday, the 13th, the Executive branch would commit 64% of its monthly net revenue to personnel payments. This is no less than 15% above the maximum limit established by the Fiscal Responsibility Law (LRF).

In other words, it would mean allocating two-thirds of what the state collects to only 3,3% of the population of a state with 1,5 million inhabitants, of whom 47% suffer from food insecurity and 10,21% are below the poverty line.

Despite the illegality of the inherited acts, the government created the Personnel Impact Analysis Commission, which will have the mission of speaking with each of the categories and unions impacted by the decrees that suspended the effects of the benefits.

The communication battle that the government has begun to wage is one of trying to explain to public sector employees that the benefits granted, even if they appear to be legal, originated illegally. The legal battle, on the other hand, is to ensure that the courts take the appropriate legal action for each act that violates the law. The actions of the employees in the coming days will tell the government the temperature of the relationship between the two.

The government will cut 40% of the 2015 budget.

The Official Gazette publishes 15 decrees by Marcelo that annul acts by Sandoval.

Sandoval reappears: "It's absurd to take away rights"

Luana: Why are these acts only now considered illegal?

Government measures are a "fragile piece," says Eduardo.

Sandoval's "kindnesses" exceed the Fiscal Responsibility Law by 15%