Pass the budget now!

A lot of things have been said about the high degree of importance we place on education but today’s start of classes in public schools comes against the backdrop of a budget crisis that hobbles the local education system right at the starting gate. Since 1998, the Commonwealth government has passed only two budgets: in 2003 and in 2006. This year, the government is once again operating on “continuing resolution” and has only 22 days left before a new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.

What does this mean for our public schools and the Commonwealth’s students? This means that classes will begin today with no budget in place and the Public School System in the dark whether it will have enough funds to last the entire school year. Remember that the budget passed from two years ago did not allot any money for PSS utilities and all government agencies, including all public schools , were still paying a flat rate for water, power and sewer. Fast-forward to today, when PSS must now pay for its own utilities and power is now metered in all public schools and you have a situation ripe for deficit spending and no way of knowing whether the budget that PSS will eventually get will be enough to pay for all its needs. PSS is literally in the dark on how much money it will have and at what rate it should be spending to ensure that it makes it through the year. Even now, PSS is already spending money on portable generators to pump water into school toilets, just so classes could continue despite the power outages. This is another expense that was never planned for nor anticipated.
This situation not only applies to PSS but to all other government-run agencies but this continued lack of a budget is particularly troubling for public schools because it has significant impact on the learning capacity of our students, the future leaders of the Commonwealth.

It is hard to plan when you don’t have a budget and having one and sticking to it is a basic principle that underlies all responsible financial undertaking. It is therefore necessary for the Legislature and the Executive branches to get their act together and pass a workable budget and it must do so before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.

Yes, the current economic crisis is making it hard to come up with hard figures on next year’s projected revenue; the numbers change from day to day, making it difficult to pin down an exact figure that we could work on. For this quarter alone, the government can’t collect the revenue raised until the end of October but the Legislature and the Department of Finance will just have to give their best stab at it, obtain the best estimates and get it over with and move on to other issues.

It is so important for a government to have a budget; not having one is tantamount to playing financial roulette. One can argue how important it is to have a budget but not having a budget is a recipe for financial disaster. This is especially true to the CNMI which, if a budget is not passed for FY 2009, will revert to FY 2007 budgetary numbers, which are outdated and do not reflect the fiscal reality of today’s economic conditions.

Any more financial punches to this economy are doubly devastating, especially when this particular fiscal matter does not have to be. Both the Executive and the Legislative branches of our government bear this responsibility. Last week we editorialized on the need for everyone in the CNMI to come together in a spirit of Animo and work together. This week we ask you to practice the responsibility that has been entrusted to you as our elected officials. We urge that the CNMI government pass a budget for FY 2009 and to not repeat the fiscal budget failures of yesteryear.