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Inos: Govt deficit could be $15M to $20M in FY 2011
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Posted on Dec 18 2011
As the Fitial administration prepares its written 2011 State of the Commonwealth report to the Legislature, Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos said the government deficit for fiscal year 2011 could be $15 million to $20 million.
This is within the same range of the fiscal year 2010 government deficit of $18.6 million, based on Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s annual report of December 2010.
In an interview on Friday, Inos said this will bring the CNMI’s cumulative deficit to over $300 million, including unpaid obligations to the NMI Retirement Fund.
“So far we’re just catching up fast on some of the prior year obligations that were paid. It’s putting heavy strain on current resources because of prior years’ stuff. We have deficit,” he said.
The government’s revised 2011 budget of $122 million further went down to $102 million in 2012 as revenues are hard to come by, with only tourism as a major industry and business have been closing one by one.
Cash shortfall has also resulted in delayed payroll for non-critical government employees. However, because of improved collections the last few weeks, the government was able to make timely payroll last week for all employees.
It’s yet to be determined how the three scheduled payrolls in December would further affect finances.
Meanwhile, the Legislature has not requested the governor to deliver a 2011 State of the Commonwealth Address before the end of the year, and this is the reason why the governor said he is just going to come up with a written report to comply with the Constitution.
Article III Section 9(b) of the CNMI Constitution requires the governor to report at least annually to the Legislature regarding the affairs of the Commonwealth and new measures that are necessary or desirable.
