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Fiscal chair eyes meeting with DoF on $9.18M FY 2015 deficit
Rep. Antonio Sablan, who chairs the House Fiscal Committee, is looking to call on the Department of Finance in the coming weeks to learn the details of the $9.18 million shortfall in fiscal year 2015 revenue projections.
He hopes to have Finance Secretary Larissa Larson present to lawmakers and explain the details of the government’s end of the year report.
The Office of the Governor has reported total revenue collections of $125.15 million in fiscal year 2015—short by about $9.18 million compared to the projected revenue for the fiscal year.
Sablan wants to “to get a clear picture.” “…And as a result of that, what we can look forward in fiscal year 2016,” he added.
The $9.1 million shortfall means the government’s total expenditures exceeded revenues appropriated in last year’s Budget Act, with a total expenditure of $143.43 million. The shortfall is largely blamed on Typhoon Soudelor, the passing of nine typhoons last fiscal year, and IT&E’s massive network outage in July.
Sablan said the deficit—which came at the close of the fiscal year—“had to be expected.”
He hopes that—as a result of the recovery activities from October last year to the present—what the CNMI lost in revenue can be made up for in fiscal 2016, as reimbursements from federal government comes in and households and business are able to spend.
Sablan hopes the current situation, with the federal government’s delay in processing more than 2,000 contract worker permit renewals, does not add to the negative situation in regards to revenue projections and collections.
