House scrambles to act on 2005 budget

The House of Representatives aims to pass the 2005 budget plan during its session today, said House leadership spokesman Charles Reyes Jr.

“We hope to have a new budget. Should they pass it [Tuesday], the Senate still has a day to act on it, and the Executive Branch can have it on the 30th,” said Reyes.

The House earlier adopted a concurrent resolution calling for the passage of a $212.65 million appropriation for next year, which is about $13 million lower than the administration’s proposed $226-million spending plan. The adopted budget figure is even lower than the existing level of $213 million.

Meantime, the Senate has no schedule for any session for the month. Its next scheduled session is Oct. 6. An urgent session, however, can be called in anytime on or before Thursday—if it aims to act on the budget.

Even if the Legislature does approve a budget, its eventual enactment into law would still depend on the Executive Branch and whether it finds the spending plan agreeable.

Acting Gov. Diego T. Benavente said as much, stressing yesterday that the Executive Branch would only approve a budget “if it is acceptable.”

“Both the governor and I believe our government must run on a budget. But it should be workable. The governor would veto it if it’s not workable, if it’s not acceptable. There’s no sense having a budget if it won’t meet the needs identified by the administration,” said Benavente.

He said a large portion of the proposed budget would go to education.

Gov. Juan N. Babauta, who left for a two-day annual conference organized by the Department of the Interior in Los Angeles last week, is said to be back this Thursday.

When the House adopted Concurrent Resolution 14-1, it did not consider the revenue-generating measures that were identified in the administration’s proposed integrated fiscal plan.

The proposal aims to raise an additional $10 million for the next fiscal year by increasing nonresident worker’s fee, which was projected to add $3.1 million to the revenue; driver’s license and vehicle fee, $1.09 million; and hotel occupancy tax, $598,692. The proposed plan to reduce income tax rebate by 10 percent was projected to raise an additional revenue of $3.42 million for the government.

The House said that the identified budgetary resources for the next fiscal year amount to only $212.65 million. It capped the funding available for the CNMI government’s operations at only $210.52 million, as over $2 million of the identified budget resources would be used to address the budget deficit.

Of the over $210 million operations budget, $1.387 million would be allocated for medical referral, bone marrow and heart transplants.

The resolution also deducted over $2.11 million in Tobacco Fund and some $746,273 representing the Tobacco Settlement Fund from the governor’s proposed $226-million budget.

Meantime, Sens. Thomas Villagomez and Pete P. Reyes said they would only approve a budget if it does not exceed the current level or the House’ adopted level.

“There is no guarantee that they would be able to collect more revenues. We can keep it at the $213 million level. Now, if the trend shows an increased collection, then the Legislature can easily pass a new budget request,” Villagomez said.

Sen. Reyes said: “I will not support a budget that exceeds what the House adopted concurrent resolution provides. If it’s that level [$212 million], then I will vote for it,” he said.