However, her assistant minister warned that if the States supported a move to find more money to increase pay offers for hundreds of civil servants then tax rises would need to be considered.
Later this month the States Assembly is due to consider a proposition from Deputy Geoff Southern, who has called for the States’ budgeted expenditure to be increased using money from reserves to make extra cash available to fund public sector pay increases.
He says that there is a ‘serious threat to the social wellbeing of the Island’ because of the row over pay rises, which has led to strikes and the planning of further protests.
Ministers have previously made it clear that there is no more money in the pot to fund further rises.
However, they have offered revised pay offers for teachers and police offers, replacing a two-year offer with a three-year deal that includes a pay rise for 2020 of 1.3% above inflation.
Beyond that, however, Treasury Minister Susie Pinel said there simply was no more money given that expenditure was tightly controlled as per the current Medium Term Financial Plan.
Such inflexibility, she said, was one of the reasons why the States was moving to a different financial planning model next year.
She said: ‘The short answer is there is no more money to be made available in 2018 and 2019.’
Asked by panel chairwoman Senator Kristina Moore whether the department was considering increasing Jersey’s GST rate from 5% to help pay for extra pay rises, she added: ‘The Treasury are not considering that. What has been offered is very reasonable for 2020, but it has got to come from somewhere. As I keep saying in the Assembly it is a recurring cost of about £9 million a year. That doesn’t stop in 2019. It just goes on and on with inflation built in.’
The minister added that ‘something would have to give somewhere’ to fund rises if they were given, but that she did not know what.
Assistant Treasury Minister Lindsay Ash, however, said measures such as the shelved waste charge would have to be considered if further pay rises needed to be funded.
He said: ‘If the States want to back extra money they are going to have to back tax-rising measures. The two have to go hand in hand. We can’t keep taking money out and not bringing money in.’
He added that the situation of trying to fund pay rises was not purely a public-sector problem.
However, panel member Deputy Jess Perchard accused the Deputy of using ‘divisive rhetoric’ which was not helpful.
She said that the States were responsible for its employees and should be setting an example to the rest of the Island.
Meanwhile, the panel also heard that the States accounts for 2018 were due to be published in the first week of April.
Treasurer Richard Bell told the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel that the final touches were being put to the accounts, which were due to be published during the week of 1 April.
He and the minister also told the panel they were confident that the £30 million of savings required to avoid a financial black hole would be met by departments.
‘I think that the programme of efficiencies is shaping up nicely. There is more to do but I am largely positive that we will achieve the £30 million,’ said Mr Bell.
