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Senate panel chair wants budget hearings on 3 islands
Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee chair Jovita Taimanao (Ind-Rota) said yesterday she plans to hold budget hearings on Saipan, Tinian and Rota during the first and second week of August, not only to “assess” agencies’ current expenditures but also “validate” their new budget submissions, barely two months before the budget deadline.
“The Senate has to do its own legwork. There won’t be shortcuts,” Taimanao told Saipan Tribune in an interview at her office.
This, despite some lawmakers’ suggestions that the Senate need not duplicate the public hearings that the House Ways and Means Committee had already conducted for the $134 million fiscal year 2015 budget.
“By third week of August, the committee would be ready with the bill, for full Senate action,” Taimanao said.
Taimanao said there will be Senate changes in some agencies’ appropriations.
Once the Senate amends the House budget bill, the measure goes back to the House for either acceptance or rejection of these changes.
Taimanao said more than likely, there will be a conference committee, which will be tasked to come up with a House-Senate “compromise” budget bill.
Rep. Trenton Conner (Ind-Tinian) said Tinian saw a $400,000 decrease in the proposed 2015 funding, compared to 2014. Tinian senators want to restore that funding or at least come closer to its current budget.
If no new budget is in place by Oct. 1, the CNMI government would have to shut down and lawmakers’ salaries would be suspended until they pass a spending plan.
Some agencies, such as the Public School System, have turned to the Senate for more funding compared to the House’s proposal.
Education Commissioner Dr. Rita Sablan said in a July 25 letter to Taimanao that the House’s proposal of a $32.279 million budget for PSS disregarded their request for an additional $1.6 million.
“The members of the House did not act on our request and therefore, I am requesting your utmost attention and support to review our request and grant us the additional budget for next fiscal year,” Sablan told Taimanao.
