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No immediate action seen on Senate’s FY06 budget
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Posted on Oct 26 2005
The budget proposal approved by the Senate is not expected to receive action soon from the House of Representatives.
House leadership spokesman Charles Reyes Jr. confirmed yesterday that House members have received their copy of the amended House Bill 14-371, which the Senate passed on Tuesday.
“The House leadership will be deliberating on the issue among themselves and in consultation with the House minority,” he said.
But Reyes added that there had been no House session scheduled yet, as most of the lawmakers were busy preparing for next week’s general election.
Another matter that needs immediate House action is the renewal of expired or expiring land leases, Reyes said. The Marianas Public Lands Authority had reportedly called the Legislature early this week requesting the House and the Senate to conduct a joint session to address the extension of certain public land leases that have expired or are about to expire, he said.
The Senate on Tuesday turned the House’s $50-million budget bill for the Public School System into a $206.5-million budget that covers all government departments and agencies.
The Senate version of the FY 2006 appropriation bill sets the PSS’s funding level at $48 million. It also mandates the Department of Finance to allocate to PSS the deficit reduction amounts collected from all government agencies. Mendiola estimated these amounts to reach $2 million and bring PSS’ total funding to its requested $50 million. The use of budget deficit funds for PSS needs will apply for fiscal year 2006 only.
The bill would keep the budgets of the Departments of Public Health and Public Safety, Northern Marianas College, and the Scholarship Office at their current levels, and cut all other agencies’ funding by 17 to 20 percent.
The measure also seeks to implement a hiring freeze in government, but prohibits the termination of any existing employee for cost-cutting reasons.
