Failure to pass FY 2000 budget would hike deficit by $4 million

The powerful House Ways and Means Committee is wrapping up its review of the proposed $206 million budget submitted by the Tenorio administration for Fiscal Year 2000, and the Legislature is expected to vote on the appropriation measure within the next few weeks.

Lawmakers must approve the spending package as the cash-strapped government could not afford to run under continuing resolution and follow appropriated amount from the previous fiscal year, according to committee chair Rep. Karl T. Reyes.

Failure to pass the budget could throw the Commonwealth into deeper financial woes as it has been saddled with debts and huge budget deficit since Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio assumed office in January 1998.

Reyes said the proposed spending limit for the next fiscal year is lower than the revised budget for FY 1999 of $210 million, which would translate to $4 million deficit if the new package is not passed by legislators.

“It is very important for us to pass the budget this year because it’s not like in the previous years where there is more money than the previous budget year,” he explained in an interview.

“Now it’s less so what it means is that we can’t put the governor in a position where we go on a continuing resolution because that would force the government to go on deficit,” Reyes added.

The committee, tasked to review financial affairs of the government, is scheduled to hold its last two budget hearings this week, one for Rota municipality and the other for the Marianas Visitors Authority.

After the series of hearings that began last month, the panel will come up with the appropriation measure that would take into account the requests of departments and agencies.

While they can not commit bigger slice of the budget for each agency, members have expressed willingness to grant flexibility and ease restrictions on reprogramming authority to allow departments heads more leeway in handling their finances.

Asked whether the House of Representatives would pass the budget smoothly this year, Reyes was mum. “Usually during election year, it is very hard to say which way it is going to go because some (legislators) would probably be very, very careful. They might not participate in the discussion or the voting,” he said.

Both the House and the Senate have until September to approve the proposal as provided under the Constitution.