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It’s crunch time for governor to submit budget to Legislature
Gov. Eloy S. Inos has only until tomorrow, April 1, to submit his proposed fiscal year 2015 budget to the Legislature. He said on Friday that the figure could now be at least $130 million, higher by some $7 million compared to the 2014 budget of $123.4 million.
The governor said he will be meeting today with the mayors of Saipan, Tinian, Rota, and the Northern Islands on the budget for fiscal year 2015, which runs from Oct. 1, 2014 to Sept. 30, 2015.
But press secretary Angel Demapan said yesterday this does not necessarily mean that the governor will submit the budget to the Legislature today.
The budget increase of at least $7 million from the current budget is part of the needed $27 million payment to the retirement settlement trust account for 2015.
House Ways and Means Committee chair Tony Sablan (Ind-Saipan) said they would immediately work on the governor’s budget submission once it’s referred to his committee.
As of yesterday, moreover, the governor has yet to submit his 2014 supplemental budget to the Legislature. Sablan said based on his earlier meetings with the governor, the supplemental budget could include “a little over $300,000” to refund members of the Commonwealth Government Employees Credit Union. It could therefore contain a provision dissolving the credit union, Sablan said.
