House Way and Means fast-tracking 2012 budget report

House Ways and Means chair Ramon Basa (Cov-Saipan) said his committee is nearly finished working on the $102-million budget being proposed by Gov. Benigno R. Fitial for fiscal year 2012.

Basa said the House Ways and Means Committee is settled “pretty much with what the administration has submitted. We’re not touching anything under the Executive Branch. We’re not touching anything under the Judicial Branch.”

He said the meeting they held yesterday was primarily held only to look at the Legislature’s budget vis-à-vis how much is going to each member and how much is going to the leadership account. He expects the Senate to do its own thing in the 2012 appropriations bill.

“We’re pretty much in agreement fortunately and everyone of us wants this budget to go as fast as possible. We’re looking at wrapping it up by Monday and I was talking to the House Speaker [Eli C. Cabrera] if he can call a session on Friday and introduce it on the floor,” said Basa.

As expected, dwindling government revenues will call for non-critical government employees to again endure 16-hour cuts and unpaid holidays in the fiscal year 2012 budget.

Basa also doesn’t expect the same drawn-out process that led to a government shutdown during budget debates in 2010.

“I hope there will be no repeat of the [budget wars] last year. We have all the data from the administration, finance, and OMB and data don’t lie. We just don’t have the money. There’s nothing really to dispute or argue. We just have continue tightening our belts and just again learn to live within our means and hopefully things will turn around next year,” he said.

The total identified budgetary resources is $120,679,000, based on 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.

In an interview last week, acting governor Eloy S. Inos said the government will set aside $10 million to pay for government employee contributions to the NMI Retirement Fund for fiscal year 2012.

He said the line-item budget was made to follow the Fund’s new directive that increased employee contribution from 37.9 percent to 60 percent.

The CNMI government partially shut down last year when the House and Senate failed to pass a budget before the start of fiscal year 2011 on Oct. 1. Lawmakers have since said they will work harder to pass a timely budget and avoid another partial shutdown in October 2011.