$212M budget resolution junked

The Senate has rejected House Concurrent Resolution 14-1 appropriating $212.651 million for fiscal year 2005.

The Senate, during its session on Rota Wednesday, voted 7-1 against the resolution with Saipan Sen. Thomas Villagomez being the only one supporting the House measure.

Senate minority leader Pete P. Reyes was absent.

In an interview yesterday, Villagomez and Reyes said they do not understand why it had to be rejected outright. They noted that the Senate could not possibly pass a budget if there is no budget to agree on in the first place.

“I’m supporting the $212.651 million because that’s the amount that the government is capable of collecting. Now, if there’s additional resources, a supplemental budget could be passed later,” said Villagomez, adding that it would be “irresponsible” for the Senate to go against the House adopted resolution.

Reyes said the resolution was “the foundation” for the budget.

“In order [for the budget] to be acted upon in the Senate, the concurrent resolution has to be first approved. Now that it’s rejected, how can the Senate act on [the budget bill]?” he said.

At this time, he said, the House could either call for a conference committee or reintroduce another budget bill.

But he warned that reintroducing a new budget would unnecessarily impact on the integrity of the House.

Villagomez and Reyes said that the Senate could also just recall its “rejection” of the concurrent resolution.

“But I’d rather that we just go ahead with the continuing resolution at $213 million. That’s more livable,” said Reyes.

Meantime, House minority member Rep. Ray Tebuteb said yesterday that the Senate and the House can still come together to approve the budget in a conference committee.

He said that, although the Senate rejected the concurrent resolution, the $212.651 million budget bill that the House passed yesterday has yet to be received by the Senate.

This means that the 2005 budget “is not yet dead,” he said.

“The budget bill is being transmitted to the Senate. The Senate has not rejected the bill. The Senate and the House can tackle it [the budget bill] jointly in a conference committee,” said Tebuteb.

Tebuteb said that House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial announced during Wednesday’s session that he would form the conference committee to discuss the budget.

The committee would be composed of members from the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Tebuteb said that the House minority has asked Fitial to appoint two members from the minority bloc to the conference committee.

“Rep. Jesus Attao requested that two members from the minority be included in the panel,” said Tebuteb.

He quoted Fitial as merely saying that “he will take it under advisement.”

House leadership spokesman Charles Reyes said that that the Speaker was disappointed with the Senate’s rejection of the concurrent resolution.

“This could have flowed much smoother if the Senate accepted it [the concurrent resolution], amend the budget, then refer it back to House,” said Reyes.

The Senate favors a higher budget of up to $215 million for 2005.

In a recent interview, Senate President Joaquin Adriano said the Legislature could not simply limit the budget to $212 million based on its projected collection.

Adriano said the Executive branch, not the Legislature, is the authority when it comes to revenue projection and collection.

“That’s not the job of the Legislature. If the administration says they can collect additional budget from the amnesty tax law, the Legislature can’t say, ‘No, you can’t possibly reach that.’ It’s up to the administration to prove that they can reach their goal,” said Adriano.

“The Legislature’s job is to appropriate. The administration’s job is to collect the money,” he added.

In a related development, Gov. Juan N. Babauta wrote Adriano yesterday asking that the Senate restore the budget of the Public School System to $42 million.

Babauta noted that the House-approved budget for 2005 is $3 million less than the administration’s budget for schools.

“When I came into office in 2002 in the midst of a budgetary meltdown, the one area of funding I refused to cut was the PSS budget. I still feel that providing our children with quality education has to be our first priority. Economic development, public safety, health are all benefited by having a well-educated citizenry,” Babauta told Adriano.

The governor said that, unless the PSS funding is restored to $41,859,928, he would have to consider vetoing any budget bill reaching his desk.

He said local funding for education has dropped 28 percent since reaching a high of $4,553 per student in 1997. Last year, the spending was only $3,274 for each student.

Babauta’s FY 2005 budget would provide for $3,586 per student, which, he said, is “a modest first step” toward bringing school funding back to adequate levels.

The House-approved budget puts the PSS funding level at $38 million. Currently, the PSS gets $37.2 million.

Overall, the Babauta administration submitted last April a $226 million budget proposal for 2005.

All these come even as the constitutional deadline for the passage of a new budget bill lapsed last Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. The CNMI government is now on its eighth day into the new fiscal year and is operating based on the last approved budget in 2002, set at $213 million.