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New spending plan to be introduced today
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Posted on Dec 03 2008
Yet another version of the fiscal year 2009 budget is in the works to include a host of concerns raised by the Department of Finance.
House Speaker Arnold I. Palacios said the joint conference committee of Senate and House members, who are crafting a compromise budget bill, will present a new draft for approval by each house in back-to-back sessions today.
The new version will incorporate concerns that Finance Secretary Eloy S. Inos outlined in a 10-page comment submitted to the legislative committee. Some of the key concerns Inos raised are the lack of a specific new rate for government contributions to the pension fund, the procedure for assessing the 1 percent fee for the Office of the Public Auditor, the discrepancies between the revenue figures and the specific appropriations in the bill, the amount appropriated for court judgments against the government, and the adverse impact that the proposed budget might have on the Marianas Visitors Authority’s marketing efforts.
“It will be an exercise in futility if we pass a budget that the administration finds unacceptable. So the joint committee met with Secretary Inos to discuss his concerns, and we’re going try to accommodate those concerns to the maximum extent possible,” said Palacios.
The joint conference committee was formed after the House and Senate failed to agree on the budget bill. The House passed the original version, and the Senate offered a substitute, which the House subsequently rejected.
Last month, the conference committee introduced a first draft, which proposed to spend $9 million more than the government’s projected earnings. The Senate passed it, but the House sent it back to the committee after legal concerns were raised about passing an unbalanced budget.
A second draft, which was leaked to the media last week, proposed to address the gap by cutting appropriations by 10.73 percent.
“Budget making is always a tough process. We’re trying to satisfy everybody’s needs, but it is especially difficult when you have dwindling resources,” said Palacios.
