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‘PSS has enough budget for ‘05’
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Posted on Dec 22 2004
There is no need to veto the 2005 appropriation bill on account of the Public School System’s funding, according to the House leadership, noting that the PSS will, in fact, be getting more under the proposed budget for fiscal year 2005 than previous fiscal years.
“To say that the PSS budget is not increased is somewhat misleading. PSS is getting more [under the current House leadership],” said House leadership spokesman Charles Reyes Jr. yesterday.
Gov. Juan N. Babauta recently reiterated that he would veto any budget bill if the requested amount for PSS is not granted. The Babauta administration had proposed $42 million for PSS in FY 2005. Under the continuing resolution, the PSS receives $37.2 million.
When it passed the appropriation bill, House Bill 14-250, the House gave PSS $38 million; the Senate reduced this to $36 million. In a conference committee, the Legislature later placed the PSS budget at $38 million but inserted provisions that, according to Reyes, would result in the public schools receiving a total of about $42 million.
For one, Reyes said the Legislature-approved budget bill provides that PSS would get the $1.5 million projected additional revenues from the Department of Labor’s $50 fee for nonresident workers.
Further, he said that under the bill, PSS would also get the lapsed funds of the Office of the Public Auditor. OPA collects 1 percent of all agencies’ budgets every fiscal year for auditing and investigation purposes.
Aside from these, Reyes said PSS would also get lapsed federal funds.
He said that, based on latest data from PSS, the agency will get $26 million in federal grants, inclusive of the lapsed funds.
“We believe that PSS has enough funding. From the local funds alone, PSS would get about $42 million,” said Reyes.
Meantime, Finance Secretary Fermin Atalig said that the governor might line-item veto the $217.7 million proposed budget.
“The governor has the options to veto the whole thing or item veto it,” he said, noting that areas of concerns include the PSS budget and the utilities budget.
Atalig said the government has an outstanding debt of $11 million with the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. but the Legislature only appropriated $4 million for FY 2005.
