Senate head supportive but wary of FY06 budget

Senate President Joaquin G. Adriano said he supports the administration’s $225.8-million budget request for fiscal year 2006 but he also expressed concerns on how the projected revenues would actually come in.

“We’ll support that but we will see and discuss where the remainder of funds [will be] coming [from],” said Adriano Monday.

The proposed annual budget is $20 million more than the level set by the continuing resolution. This is despite the expected decline in revenues from the garment sector, which is currently experiencing widespread downsizing and closures in the wake of the worldwide lifting of trade quotas this year.

“We need to raise a lot of revenues to come up to that [$225 million] point,” said Adriano.

The House leadership earlier criticized the administration’s proposal as “overly optimistic, unrealistic.” It had warned that the package would be rejected the same way the previous proposal was rejected by the lower chamber.

The House had disapproved the administration’s $13-million Integrated Fiscal Plan, which was part of the $226-million proposed spending package for FY 2005. The IPF contained proposed fee and tax increases.

House leadership spokesman Charles Reyes Jr. said Monday that House officials remain opposed to tax increases. He noted that the FY 2006 budget proposal “singles out” the poker industry.

Under the proposed budget, the administration wants to raise the annual poker license fees by another $6,000, increasing the total fee to $18,000 on Saipan; $14,000 on Rota, and $12,000 on Tinian.

In his transmittal letter, Gov. Juan N. Babauta said that poker fees must be raised to fund education.

The administration proposes to give the Public School System its full requested amount of $50 million. Babauta said this equates to about $4,300 per student, compared with the current funding level of $3,378 per student.

Although the proposed funding is still below that the 1997 level of $4,629 per student, “it is a substantial and necessary step in the right direction.”

He noted that even the 1997 level was way below the national average of $7,376 per student.

Further, the governor cited that a federal government study showed that poorly funded schools significantly underperform compared with well-funded schools. As such, he said, it was no surprise that only a fifth of PSS’ 4,460 tested students can read at their grade level.

“This is not the fault of the students or the teachers. This is simply an indication of the effect on our children that comes from a persistent lack of investment in their education,” he said.