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House to pass $193.5M budget soon
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Posted on May 16 2006
The House of Representatives is expected to convene Friday to adopt the $193.5-million budget proposed for fiscal year 2007.
According to House Speaker Oscar M. Babauta, the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee have both expressed intent to support the Fitial administration’s budget proposal.
Babauta said yesterday that a Friday House session was being scheduled for the purpose of approving the available resources identified by the Executive Branch. The Senate was expected to follow suit immediately, he added.
Work on the breakdown will follow the adoption of the budget resolution.
The administration has submitted a $193.5-million budget package for FY2007. This figure represents a $5-million cut from the current fiscal year’s already reduced budget of $198.5 million. It is also nearly $20 million less than the government’s last enacted budget of $213 million.
In submitting the budget proposal to the Legislature, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial said government offices had requested a combined budget amounting to $251.8 million. But he cut the amount because “it is imperative that we all must continue to exercise great fiscal prudence.”
The reduced budget will mean the elimination of certain employee benefits, removal of vacant positions and termination of funding for capital improvement equipment, implementation of a flat tax system, among other things.
Speaker Babauta had said earlier that the budget cut would be “absorbed mainly by the Executive Branch.” The Legislature and the Judicial Branch, as well as essential services, would retain their FY2006 budget level.
