FY 2018 budget finalized

A committee tasked to hammer out a compromise version of the $145-million budget succeeded yesterday in coming to terms on the budget allocations for fiscal year 2018.

The conference committee—consisting of four members of each chamber—agreed to the spending plan after intense discussions since the House of Representatives rejected the Senate amendments last Monday.

“The work of the conference committee centered on considering critical needs throughout the Commonwealth government,” said Rep. Angel A. Demapan (R-Saipan), who led the House conferees.

“I am very much pleased that we were able to work swiftly and prudently come up with a compromise version of the fiscal year 2018 budget. Ultimately, our goal was to ensure that we iron out areas of contention and that we prevent any shutdown in government services,” he added.

Sen. Jude Hofschneider (R-Tinian), the Senate conferees chairman, also described the budget as “prudent and beneficial to the Commonwealth as a whole.”

“Aside from working out the budgetary needs of the central government, it is equally important to ensure that we take care of the needs of our municipal governments as well. With the cooperation of all the conferees, we are pleasd to put forward a final version of the budget that addresses all areas of the Commonwealth,” he said.

The House had opposed the Senate’s indirect cut on the Marianas Visitors Authority’s budget—an allocation of about $1.5 million. Through the conference committee, it was finalized that a total of $550,000 would be restored to the MVA budget.

The finalized fiscal year 2018 budget still calls for MVA to fund a $450,000 purchase of a truck for the Department of Fire and Emergency Services; $250,000 each to fund both the Tinian and Rota Mayor’s Office’s purchase of a tractor with batwing mower attachments; and $69,435 for the funding of tourism-related programs of the Public School System’s Cooperative Education Program.

The House also had issues with Senate amendments that buffed up the funding of both Rota and Tinian. The House originally allocated $7.8 million and $7.7 million for Rota and Tinian, respectively. The Senate amendments allocated $8.2 million and $8.4 million for Rota and Tinian, respectively.

Through the conference committee, Rota was allocated $8.1 million, while Tinian’s allocation remained unchanged at $8.4 million.

According to a statement from the Legislature, the allocations take into account “funding needs to help improve government services and programs” for each island’s residents.

The conferees also decided that since the Supreme Court has yet to issue a ruling on the constitutionality of an increase in salaries for elected officials, the funding allocated for this would be re-appropriated elsewhere.

The conferees decided that $334,937 of the appropriation for House members’ salaries and $$150,122 of the appropriation for Senate members’ salaries would go to both the Department of Public Works for street lights and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. The Legislature noted that the fiscal year 2018 budget still reflects the appropriation of $2.8 million for the funding of salary increases for civil service employees of the government, making it the second consecutive fiscal year to do so since the enactment of Public Law 19-83.

DPW receives $104,759 while CHCC receives $380,900.

The Senate also amended the initial budget proposal to include the payment of hazardous pay for Solid Waste employees on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. The conference committee approved the provision.

A total of $1 million was appropriated to address judgments against the Commonwealth government for the payments of final judgments and settlements.

An agreement between conferees increased the number of positions allocated to the Governor’s Vacant Holding Account from 50 to 100, provided that 30 would be reserved for the Saipan Department of Public Safety and 10 each for both the Rota and Tinian Department of Public Safety.

“This provision will allow DPS to draw a number of positions from the Vacant Holding Account should staffing needs arise, provided that the department can identify available funds to support the needs,” said the Legislature statement.