Senate passes budget bill

The Senate passed yesterday a substitute $102-million budget bill that the House could end up rejecting today if they disagree with the changes that include cutting the funds of the Legislature and the Executive Branch by over $2 million and moving them to the Public School System, the Northern Marianas College, Rota, Tinian, and other programs.

Besides the reallocated funds, PSS and NMC also got an additional $1 million from senators who incorporated future collections from the “$150 CNMI education funding fee” under the federalization law.

If the House approves the Senate substitute budget bill today, the measure goes straight to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial for action.

But if the House rejects it, the House and Senate will have to form a conference committee that should come up with a budget measure that’s acceptable to both houses.

Lawmakers and the governor have only two weeks or until Sept. 30 to pass and sign a budget to prevent a second partial government shutdown in CNMI history.

Any partial government shutdown will result in the temporary unemployment of over 1,000 government employees, most of them already dealing with a 16-hour pay cut biweekly and delayed payrolls since last year.

Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) said the Senate awaits the House’s action, whether to accept or reject the Senate’s amendments to the budget bill.

Manglona and Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee chair Sen. Jovita Taimanao (Ind-Rota) touted the bill’s increased funding for NMC and PSS, as well as for Rota and Tinian’s Departments of Public Safety, among other programs.

House Speaker Eli Cabrera (R-Saipan) said there’s no telling yet as of yesterday afternoon whether the leadership will accept or reject the budget bill that just came from the Senate.

Cabrera said each House member has to carefully review the amendments that senators made to the spending measure.

“But I’m glad that they passed the bill today and we’re now reviewing it,” Cabrera told Saipan Tribune.

Manglona and Cabrera have already separately named their respective conferees in case the House rejects the Senate-amended budget bill.

The Senate conferees will include Taimanao, Senate Vice President Jude Hofschneider (R-Tinian), Senate Floor Leader Pete Reyes (R-Saipan), and Sen. Ralph Torres (R-Saipan), said Manglona.

Cabrera said he’s likely to appoint as conferees House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Ray Basa (Cov-Saipan), Rep. Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan), Rep. Sylvester Iguel (Cov-Saipan), and Rep. Ray Yumul (R-Saipan).

Unlike in the House where members went into heated arguments before passing a budget bill on Aug. 31, the Senate’s substitute bill sailed smoothly during the session.

By a vote of 9-0, the Senate passed the latest version of Basa’s 2012 budget bill, which is House Bill 17-215, House Substitute 1, House Draft 5, Senate Substitute 1, Senate Draft 1.

‘Federalization fee’

Under the Senate-amended budget bill, PSS and NMC got over $1.5 million in additional funding taken from the Legislature, the Executive Branch and other programs.

On top of the reallocated amount, PSS and NMC also got $1 million each.

This additional money will come from the “$150 CNMI education funding fee” that employers will have to pay for every foreign worker hired under U.S. Public Law 110-229.

The substitute bill originally allocated only $1 million for NMC from this education funding fee collection, but Taimanao offered a floor amendment to increase it to $2 million so that PSS will also get additional money.

The Senate ended up giving PSS $30,219,675, which is over $2.3 million more than what the House gave—$27,905,807.

Senators gave NMC a total of $5,249,405, also much more than the $4,018,800 given by the House.

Education Commissioner Rita Sablan, in an interview after the Senate passed the budget bill, said she’s thankful for the Senate’s efforts in finding more money to give to PSS at a time when enrollment rose by 4 to 5 percent.

Sablan, during the session, asked senators to give PSS $31 million to $36 million to meet its needs.

PSS ended up getting over $30.219 million, still short of its minimum request of $31 million. But Sablan said it will now be up to PSS to balance its budget.

The House budget allowed PSS to meet its Maintenance-of-Efforts requirements but Sablan said the system is focused on its “needs” to efficiently run the system with over 11,000 students.

NMC president Sharon Hart also asked senators, before passing the budget bill, to give more to NMC to meet its needs.

Zero accounts

True to their word, senators zeroed out both the House and Senate leadership accounts amounting to $248,396, and the 29 lawmakers’ allocation of over $1.495 million.

These were instead given to PSS and NMC.

Lawmakers use their allocation for inter-island travel, operate their offices and hire their own employees. Without the allocation, they may have to rely solely on the Legislative Bureau, whose budget remained untouched.

The Senate-amended budget bill decreased the Marianas Visitors Authority’s budget by $500,000.

Other cuts

Senators cut the Executive Branch’s budget by at least $343,351.

Of this amount, $88,841 was taken from the Office of the Governor’s “operations,” $86,297 from the Office of the Lieutenant Governor’s “operations,” and $168,213 from “operations” under the “total other offices” in the Executive Branch.

The Senate reduced the Micronesian Legal Services’ budget to $12,000, a $61,162 difference from the House budget.

But the Senate gave an additional $40,000 to the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library, $10,000 for judgments, and $75,000 more for medical referrals.

Senators also gave $77,162 for substance abuse prevention.

More for Rota, Tinian programs

Senators agreed to increase the funding for the First Senatorial District or Rota, by $250,000.

DPS-Rota will get an additional $100,000; the Mayor of Rota’s office will get an additional $80,000; the Rota Municipal Council will get $50,000 more; and Rota’s operation and maintenance will get $20,000 more.

The Senate-amended budget bill also gives at least $362,719 more to the Second Senatorial District or Tinian.

DPS-Tinian gets an additional $130,000, while the Mayor of Tinian gets $132,719 more.

The Tinian Municipal Council gets $50,000 more; the Customs Service-Tinian gets an additional $10,000; the Tinian Economic Development gets $20,000 more; and the operation and maintenance-Tinian gets $20,000 more.