From $138K, draft budget eyes $300K for House leaders

At a time when many government employees are receiving a 16-hour cut per payroll, the House Ways and Means Committee is thinking of more than doubling the House leadership account from the fiscal year 2011 budget law’s $138,000 to $300,000, based on a draft budget bill dated Aug. 2. As of yesterday, though, the panel indicated that it wants to bring it back to the $138,000 level.

At the same time, the House panel’s third draft gave the Senate leadership $183,296 in its third draft of the 2012 budget bill.

Historically, the appropriations for the House and Senate leadership accounts have always been the same regardless of the number of members for each chamber.

A fourth draft of the 2012 budget bill was distributed to some House leadership members yesterday, giving $138,000 again to each of the House and Senate leadership accounts.

But some members said these figures can still change.

The latest draft of the bill also gives each House and Senate member’s office account some $4,300 a month, lower than their current allotment of $5,900 a month.

This is still higher than what some members previously said will be given to each member—some $3,000 a month.

House Speaker Eli Cabrera (R-Saipan) called yesterday for a session on Friday, but a copy of the agenda has yet to be distributed.

The 2012 budget bill is expected to be pre-filed before Friday’s House session, a day after the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation is also expected to pass a controversial Saipan casino gambling legalization bill.

The third draft of the budget bill also combined the appropriations for the Office of the Governor and the Office of the Lieutenant Governor.

Except for Rep. Froilan Tenorio (Cov-Saipan), no other member of the House leadership wanted to comment on the third draft of the budget bill.

He said he’s only aware of the third draft giving $300,000 to the House leadership account, and not a fourth one that gives it $138,000.

Tenorio said he believes the Ways and Means Committee should not change the proposed $300,000 for the House leadership account.

“We’re reducing the individual allotment,” he said.

He said the speaker should be given more funds to distribute among committee chairs who do a lot more things than minority members, including holding public hearings and therefore need more allotments.

Rep. Joseph Palacios (R-Saipan) also did not want to comment on the third draft, but said the fourth draft is not giving $300,000 to the House leadership account.

During last year’s budget sessions, the House and Senate were deadlocked not only on the work hour cuts but also on the leadership account and each individual lawmaker’s allotment, among other things.

Press secretary Angel Demapan also reiterated yesterday the Fitial administration’s hope that the Legislature won’t allow a second partial government shutdown.

The House and Senate’s budget deadlock went past the fiscal year 2011 deadline for passing a budget on Oct. 1, 2010.

With less than two months to go before the start of fiscal year 2012, the House has yet to pass a budget bill.

Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota), in a separate interview yesterday, said the Senate leadership hopes that the House can pass a budget bill as soon as possible “to give the Senate adequate time to review their proposal.”

Manglona said the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Jovita Taimanao (Ind-Rota), is about ready to wrap up its budget meetings with government agencies and is looking forward to the House’s budget bill.

“If it were up to the Senate, we won’t allow any shutdown but the Senate and House need to work together,” Manglona added.

There’s no telling yet whether the House and Senate will pass the 2012 budget on time to avoid another partial government shutdown, but both chambers had already adopted a concurrent resolution approving a $102 million budget ceiling, as submitted by Gov. Benigno R. Fitial on April 1.

Last year’s partial government shutdown resulted in the temporary joblessness of over 1,000 employees for several days.