Previous Story
Amendment to budget bill
|
Posted on Oct 01 2008
The 16th Legislature: We applaud all of you for finally addressing a long awaited fiscal year budget. We fully understand the level of frustrations that each one of you endured in putting together such a comprehensive and difficult budget, especially in this economic crunch.
We urge all of you to ignore Charles Reyes’ allegations of a political agenda and concentrate on moving forward with this long awaited budget for the Commonwealth government’s sake. The most important and critical concern that we have is the reprogramming authority of the governor once the budget is passed.
As the House Ways and Means Committee stated about the proposed $79.2 million lump sum appropriation for the Executive Branch, the Governor could allocate funds in any way he pleases. This is clearly an opportunity for immediate reprogramming once the budget is passed, especially toward funding the lawsuit by the governor against the federal government.
Therefore, we strongly recommend that an amendment be included to apply strict sanctions and criminal charges be brought upon the Executive Branch should any reprogramming of funds take place after the passage of proposed budget.
We completely disagree and oppose this administration’s stance on the lawsuit against the federal government and it is our hope that all of you will come together on a unified position for the betterment of our people and our homeland as a whole.
Thank you and good luck to all of you on the passing of the fiscal budget.
[B]
Gregorio Cruz Jr. [/B]
[I]Taotao Tano CNMI Inc.[/I]
