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Resolution to OK $102M budget for 2012 ready
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Posted on Jun 22 2011
House Ways and Means Committee chair Ray Basa (Cov-Saipan) has pre-filed a House concurrent resolution to approve a $102 million budget for fiscal year 2012, even as the committee is still drafting next year’s budget bill.
Speaker Eli Cabrera (R-Saipan), in a brief interview yesterday, said the concurrent resolution will be acted on during the House’s next session, which has yet to be scheduled.
House Concurrent Resolution 17-3, which is co-sponsored by six other members, seeks to approve the government budget for fiscal year 2012—Oct. 1, 2011 to Sept. 30, 2012.
The total identified budgetary resources is $120,679,000, based on Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s budget submission.
Of this amount, $102 million is the total local revenue and resources available for appropriation for the CNMI government’s activities in 2012. The rest will go toward other obligations such as bond payments and other earmarks.
The four-page concurrent resolution also urges the governor to submit a report as soon as possible any amendments or changes to the budget, including actual revenues and expenditures to date for fiscal year 2011, any policy changes proposed since the April 1 submittal of the budget proposal, and other significant factors affecting the 2012 budget.
Basa said earlier that the House Ways and Means Committee’s draft budget bill still has unpaid holidays and a 16-hour cut every two weeks for many government employees.
The CNMI government partially shut down last year when the House and Senate failed to pass a budget before the start of FY 2011 on Oct. 1. Lawmakers have since said they will work harder to pass a timely budget and avoid another partial shutdown in October this year.
