Inos looks into ‘problematic provisions’ of $102M budget bill

Acting governor Eloy S. Inos reviewed during the weekend what the administration describes as “problematic provisions” of the $102-million budget bill that the House and Senate passed during back-to-back sessions on Friday.

Press secretary Angel Demapan said yesterday afternoon that the administration may issue a decision on the fiscal year 2012 budget bill “as early as today.”

The Governor’s Office has scheduled a news briefing at 10:30am today.

Inos received the budget bill transmission on Saturday morning and has since been reviewing it.

Other Executive Branch officials also worked on the budget bill during the weekend on Capital Hill.

Demapan said review of the budget bill continues “given that there are still problematic provisions that we feel the Legislature did not adequately resolve despite recommendations from the administration.”

“At this time, acting governor Inos is looking further into provisions such as the public auditor’s fee, the increase of funding for the Legislature, the mayor of Saipan, and the municipalities of Tinian and Rota. These increases were not taken into account in the governor’s budget proposal,” Demapan told Saipan Tribune.

Tourism bill

He said another area of concern is the decrease of funding for the Marianas Visitors Authority.

“It was the understanding of the administration that the Senate would pass HB 17-179 simultaneously with this appropriations act to supplement the MVA’s budget since the Legislature slashed 56 percent of MVA’s operations budget. The administration was surprised to learn that the Senate decided to hold off on passing HB 17-179,” Demapan said.

Sen. Ralph Torres (R-Saipan), chairman of the committee that reviewed the House bill, said yesterday that the only reason why the Senate postponed action on the bill is the need to clarify the definition of the $15 passenger fee.

During Friday night’s Senate session, there was a floor amendment offered, but not acted on, to change the name of the fee to a “customs and quarantine fee.” But senators suggested asking for further clarification on the bill.

“We want to make sure that the definition (is proper) and the allocation goes to MVA,” Torres said.

The senator said the Senate will hold another session this week to pass the bill.

HB 17-179 seeks to charge passengers from non-U.S. destinations a new $15 “travel promotion fee.”

This bill is an amendment to a Fitial administration-sponsored tourism incentive legislation that became law early this year. The amendment bill contains the new $15 fee to be collected by airlines, besides expanding the target market for the tour agent incentive program.

Collections from this new fee will also be used to “recover costs incurred for enforcement of customs and quarantine laws.”

During Friday’s sessions, lawmakers took turns commending the eight-member conference committee led by Rep. Ray Basa (Cov-Saipan), along with Sen. Jovita Taimanao (Ind-Rota), for coming up with a compromise budget bill days before the Sept. 30 deadline.

Last year, a budget deadlock between the House and Senate that lingered past the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year forced a partial government shutdown that led to over 1,000 government employees without jobs for days and some public services unavailable to the community.

But passing a compromise budget seven days before the start of FY 2012 is still considered an “11th hour” submission as far as the administration is concerned because Gov. Benigno R. Fitial submitted his budget proposal to the Legislature on April 1.

“The administration is also troubled to once again see a budget bill transmitted at the ‘11th hour.’ It’s been nearly six months since Governor Fitial submitted his budget proposal. Had the Legislature worked on a budget bill months earlier, there would have been adequate time to come up with a bill drafted with more care and precision,” Demapan said.

The press secretary said in as much as the administration would like to avert a shutdown, “it also must ensure that a balanced and efficient budget is enacted for the coming fiscal year.”

“Thus, following completion of its review and analysis, the administration may come up with a decision as early as (today),” he added.

Without a budget passed and signed before the start of FY 2012 on Oct. 1, the NMI Constitution’s shutdown provision will kick in.

The compromise budget bill that the House passed by a vote of 19-1 and the Senate by 9-0, gives increased appropriations for the Public School System, Northern Marianas College, the Commonwealth Election Commission, the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library, and lawmakers’ individual operational account, compared to what lawmakers earlier proposed.

Rep. Sylvester Iguel (Cov-Saipan), one of the conferees, said the budget bill “may not be perfect, but it’s a budget that we can work with.”

Another conferee, Rep. Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan), said lawmakers should continue to work to restore the normal 80 work hours.

Since last year, hundreds of government employees have been receiving a 16-hour cut biweekly and delayed payrolls.

The House and Senate gave a $30 million funding for PSS, and $5.2 million for NMC so both could meet their federal maintenance-of-efforts requirements. The Senate’s version of the budget bill gave PSS and NMC more than what the House gave them but the conferees agreed to the latest figures.

Another controversial provision is the 29 lawmakers’ individual allocation which the House earlier gave $51,000 but the Senate wanted it “zeroed out.”

It turned out, the conferees—and subsequently the 28 of 29 lawmakers—ended up giving themselves more than what the House and Senate originally approved. But some lawmakers said the members’ allocation could be subjected to cuts down the road.

The Legislature gave the House and Senate leadership account $138,000 each, more than what was earlier proposed.

The Executive Branch’s funding is down to $28.33 million, from over $29 million in the House and Senate versions of the budget bill.

Rota and Tinian’s budget is restored to over $4.544 million each, while Saipan and the Northern Islands’ budget total over $1.439 million.

The budget bill also sets aside $10 million for the government’s employer contribution to the NMI Retirement Fund. The Fund earlier asked that this allocation be increased to at least $25 million.