Atalig disappointed with administration’s budget proposal

Donald M. Manglona and Efraim M. Atalig

Rota Mayor Efraim M. Atalig said Thursday that he and the directors of the Rota Mayor’s Office are disappointed with the administration’s budget request for Rota for fiscal year 2023, specifically for deleting their budget for “all others.”

At the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee’s budget hearing for the Rota Mayor’s Office held at the Centron Hustisia on Rota, Atalig urged the committee to help them restore their budget.

The mayor said that when he asked about the matter, he was told that Gov. Ralph DLG Torres will be submitting to the House an amendment to the budget proposal on July 1.

“So I’m hoping that by then, our budget for ‘all others’ can be restored,” he said. He did not specify the amount of his budget request for “all others.”

Atalig said all they did with their 2023 budget request was mirror their request for the 2022 budget. “We didn’t ask for more or less, [but] just the same. But as you probably can see, ‘all others’ is not there. So like I said at the outset, we’re very upset. So I don’t know what else to say. But it’s not good for Rota,” the mayor said.

House and Ways Committee chair Rep. Donald Manglona (Ind-Rota) stated that upon reviewing the governor’s proposal, the mayor was correct in saying that the governor’s proposal mainly protected the personnel.

“And so what we’re here to do is kind of understand what are some of the operational needs that we can try to support and understand. What are the highest costs and expenditure and what would that mean to the agencies,” Manglona said.

He said Atalig has submitted a budget request of $3.1 million: about $2.7 million or $2.8 million for personnel and the rest for operations and utilities at $225,000.

He said from their understanding the utilities will be shouldered by the administration.
Manglona said that Atalig had requested for 86 personnel in his budget submission, but the governor had proposed 110 personnel, “so that’s one of the main areas that we would like to address and understand. Why there’s this huge gap between the mayor’s submission as well as the governor’s proposal?” Manglona said.

Atalig told the committee that they also received the administration’s submission to the Legislature with respect to the budget for personnel, which according to him contains some errors. He said they requested what the municipality employees have been earning, but the administration’s submission show that they’d now be receiving less.

“If we were to approve that budget, am I [will have to] go back to the employees and say, ‘I’m sorry you used to work for $20 an hour, for example, and now…it’s only $15.’ I mean, what is that for? I don’t understand that,” Atalig said.

He said the biggest problem with the submission of budget is the personnel and for the “all others.”

Manglona, however, explained that there are two budget submissions by the administration—Volume 1 and 4. Manglona asked the mayor if he was able to review Volume 4, which is the American Rescue Plan Act funding that covers the shortfall for what is seen in the general fund budget.
The chair said the general fund budget revert employees back to the reduced hours and furloughs that the CNMI experienced last fiscal year.

“So the Volume 4 fills in that additional 16 hours or 20% as well as for all employees that were furloughed,” Manglona said.

Atalig said he is not aware of Volume 4.
Manglona said Volume 4 should take care of the salary difference between what is seen in the general fund Volume 1.

“But the ARPA only covers the shortfall in personnel. It’s still the same with operations where there’s none for the municipality,” he added.

In response to Manglona’s inquiry on the number of employees, Atalig said for the current fiscal year, overall under his office, they have 60 employees funded by ARPA and the remaining 86 being funded by the general fund.

Manglona noted that Atalig requested a budget submission for 86 employees for fiscal year 2023, but the governor proposed 110.

Atalig said to him it’s good that the governor gives them full time employees.

“But it’s not good that he didn’t give us the funds. The reason I requested 86 is because those are the people that are now working. So maybe I don’t know, later on he might find some funds and give it to me,” the mayor said.