House grudgingly OKs $102 million budget resolution

While some members of the House of Representatives believe that less than $100 million would be available for government operations in fiscal year 2012, the House still went ahead and adopted yesterday afternoon a concurrent resolution approving a $102 million budget.

However, if and when the Fitial administration announces by the July 1 deadline a change in projected revenues, the House will have to recall House Concurrent Resolution 17-3, House Draft 1, said Ways and Means chairman Rep. Ray Basa (Cov-Saipan).

Basa believes that the revised $102 million is a “slightly optimistic” figure.

“I believe actual revenue for government operations will be lower than that,” he told Saipan Tribune.

Basa’s HCR 17-3 passed by a vote of 19-1.

Rep. Froilan Tenorio (Cov-Saipan), the only one who voted “no” on the concurrent resolution, said the CNMI will be lucky to even have $95 million in actual revenue for government operations in 2012.

Fiscal year 2012 will be from Oct. 1, 2011, to Sept. 30, 2012.

“Those projected figures are obsolete. They’re way off mark. They were formulated even before the March 11 Japan disasters. And we’re just talking about projected revenues, not spending. I believe the budget would be less than $100 million, maybe $95 million,” said Tenorio, a former governor and speaker.

House Speaker Eli Cabrera (R-Saipan) said the 2012 budget bill reflects the governor’s $102 million budget, but even he does not expect this much.

“The deadline for the governor to submit the 2012 budget was on April 1, but they worked on the projections way ahead of that,” Cabrera said.

As of yesterday afternoon, the Fitial administration indicated that “it’s almost impossible to see an upward change,” Cabrera said. If there’s going to be an announcement of change in projected revenues, “it will be a downward” one.

Press secretary Angel Demapan, when asked for comment yesterday, said: “At this time, the administration does not have any changes to report.”

“Nonetheless, it will continue to monitor the financial trends of revenues coming in. Should there be an immediate need to make any adjustments even after July 1, the administration can and will communicate any such developments to the Legislature,” he said.

Cabrera said the administration may be waiting for the June 30 monthly deadline for filing business gross revenue tax and see whether there’s improvement in collections, before preparing a final report to the Legislature.

More than a decade ago, the CNMI’s government budget was over $200 million.

During discussions on HCR 17-3, minority leader Diego Benavente (R-Saipan) urged his colleagues to consider holding off action on the measure until they hear directly from the administration or the Finance Department whether the projected revenues available for government operations still stand at $102 million.

Minority members, including Rep. Joseph Deleon Guerrero (R-Saipan) and Rep. Frank Dela Cruz (R-Saipan), questioned the lack of public hearing or meeting with Finance before introducing the resolution.

Rep. Ray Yumul (R-Saipan), for his part, said the administration figures did not come from thin air.

“I believe they’re a sound estimate,” he said.

Benavente said it is likely that the Senate will hold a public hearing.

Basa made an oral amendment to his own concurrent resolution, citing “oversight” on the part of the Ways and Means Committee. His amendment put the figure “$2,931,329” as projected revenue from the Department of Public Lands instead of the “zero” indicated in the original concurrent resolution.

Under the four-page resolution, the total identified budgetary resource is $120,679,000, based on Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s budget submission of April 1. But because members adopted an oral amendment on DPL revenue, this figure was changed to over $123 million.

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.

As of yesterday afternoon, the Fitial administration does not expect timely payroll for non-critical government employees today.

The press secretary said as of Wednesday, the Finance Department is projecting timely payroll for critical services and federally funded personnel “only” due to a shortage in cash availability.

“However, Finance continues to actively monitor the government’s daily cash flow. So in the event that there is a significant change reflecting the availability of additional funds, the department will be able to disburse all other remaining payroll checks,” he said.

Government employees on Capital Hill said they were hoping that they will get their paychecks today or tomorrow.

“If not, then we will have a long Fourth of July weekend without money,” one of them said.

Since June 2010, the government has been delayed at least 16 times in issuing paychecks to “non-critical” employees. This week may be the 17th time.