A small portion of this extra spending may be offset with from savings in the budget generated by the move to cut the salaries of top officials in the Executive Branch. The nation had heard several outcries in recent years about the mega-salaries earned by some civil servants and advisors contracted for consultancy work, which contrast sharply with the reality of this country in which more than half the population gets by with less than $2 a day. The rest of the State apparatus (National Assembly deputies and the Judiciary), have yet to get on the bandwagon and prescribe similar pay cuts for themselves.

Other cost cutting measures have been announced in order to redirect funds within the limited national budget. The use of government-financed credit cards by officials is somewhat more restricted, fuel and cell phone allowances have been reduced, and ministers have been instructed not to have lunch meetings at expensive restaurants, even when “entertaining” foreign visitors. Patronage of popular eateries has been suggested, thereby allowing high-ups to “get in touch with the people.” Let them eat fritanga, appears to be the cry.

An element much criticized in the local press was the move to control and reduce spending by different government entities for advertising, which translates into less income for owners of newspapers, radios, and television stations. Many media interpreted this as an attack on press freedom.

Naturally, the question is begged of just how “free” the press is if it depends on government advertising. Past administrations were extraordinarily generous in purchasing full-page spreads in local dailies and  half-minute spots on TV channels extolling the virtues of one or another government agency project. It also begs the question of whether press freedom has a price.

Some further government revenues may come from playing an ongoing up-and-down game with the prices of fuel at the pump, even contrary to the fluctuation of world oil prices. Prices for cigarettes also took a recent jump and it is expected that the cost of imported liquors will follow suit, possibly local brands, too. More of this kind of “vice tax” is to be expected from an administration looking to pay for its promises, though no figures have been released about just how much more money is flowing into government coffers.

On the labor front, the Ortega administration has had to confront wage demands from workers in education and health. Teachers have received a part of what had been negotiated for them in past years and most healthcare personnel got a raise earlier this year. A good move considering the essential services they provide. Doctors, however, are claiming they were entitled to a higher increase and some protests have been staged around the issue.

Is this a sign of things to come? Sandinista health worker union leader Gustavo Porras has long been a champion of salary justice for his constituency, championing their cause for parity with the Central American counterparts, pushing against the winds and tides of the international financial institutions that “dictated” conditions to the administration of the day. Now, though, he has indicated that doctors and other public servants must perhaps condition their demands and take a look at what deal is negotiated with the International Monetary Fund for continued support to underpin the nation’s economy from that lending body.

There is ongoing discussion of an increase in the minimum wage, figures for which are rarely made public and which vary from sector to sector of the economy. At the May 1^st International Workers’ Day celebration in Managua, Ortega proclaimed there would be an increase of at least 15%, and possibly up to 25% if resources can be found. Before that announcement, talks between the government and representatives of labor and business centered around a 10% increase. In mid-May, low-paid workers were told that the increase will be 18%. Depending on what economic sector they labor in, the minimum will be somewhere between $65 and $85 a month.

Job creation is not exactly a strong point of this administration so far, except of course if you consider the usual post-election practice of the victor opening up a of a couple of thousand job vacancies in government ministries for campaign workers by dismissing civil servants hired by the past administration.

Noticeably absent from the national political scene this spring are the perennial university student protests around the issue of funding for higher education, established in the constitution as 6% of the national budget spending.