Govt preps for another shutdown

Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos said yesterday that the Fitial administration is now preparing for another partial government shutdown that will again result in joblessness for over 1,000 workers for days, because the House of Representatives has yet to pass a budget bill with only a little over a month before the start of fiscal year 2012 on Oct. 1.

At the same time, some citizens are calling on the public to hold a protest in front of the Legislature today from 1pm to 4pm to oppose the House Ways and Means Committee’s latest draft of the 2012 budget bill, which they say cuts education budget, among other things.

Inos, who oversees government finances, said the Fitial administration sent over its proposed fiscal year 2012 budget of $102 million to the Legislature on April 1. Four months later, the House has yet to pass a budget bill that the Senate also has to review.

“At this point, it [budget] is still the property of the Legislature. We sent the budget over since April 1. And we’re ready to look at the budget that’s enacted by the Legislature. We’re not at that point yet,” said Inos in an interview after a closed-door meeting with members of the House leadership on a separate issue—the Saipan casino bill.

Inos, a former Finance secretary, said the government is not expected to run out of money between now and the end of fiscal year 2011 on Sept. 30.

“We’re still tracking [in our projections], except for some shortfall in hospital collection but we’re working hard on that. For this fiscal year, we’re set to go until Sept. 30. It’s Oct. 1, the new fiscal year, when if no budget is enacted…then the shutdown provision of the Constitution kicks in,” he said.

He again pointed out the need to pass a budget soon.

“It’s really a timing issue. But I tell you one thing for sure. We’re gearing up for a shutdown. Because we haven’t seen a [budget] bill. The budget hasn’t passed the House. So we’re doing preparations for possible shutdown,” Inos said.

The Constitution requires a government shutdown in the event that a new budget is not passed before the beginning of the fiscal year. The shutdown will remain until a budget is passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor.

Inos said once there’s another partial shutdown, there will be more government employees who will be affected because the administration will impose a stricter policy in determining the so-called critical government employee positions who will be exempted from the shutdown.

An intense budget deadlock between the House and Senate last year resulted in a historic partial government shutdown in October 2010.

The agenda for today’s House session does not include any 2012 budget bill.

House floor leader George Camacho (Ind-Saipan) said last night that House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Ray Basa (Cov-Saipan) may introduce a budget bill today.

The House, however, cannot immediately act on the budget bill because it’s not pre-filed and not offered for review for at least 24 hours by House members and the public.

The latest draft of the budget bill still includes a 16-hour work cut every two weeks, at least for the first quarter of 2012, along with unpaid holidays.

Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) reiterated that the Senate leadership hopes to receive a budget bill from the House as soon as possible, with only about a month to go before the start of fiscal year 2012.

Even if the House passes a budget bill next week, the Senate will only have a month to review it. If the Senate rejects the House budget bill, they still have to call a conference committee that will deliberate on a budget acceptable to both houses.

Manglona said the Senate does not want to see another partial government shutdown, adding that both houses need to work together.