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Governor poised to sign budget bill as early as today
Gov. Eloy S. Inos is poised to sign into law the fiscal year 2015 budget bill as early as today, 10 days after the $134.33-million spending package reached his desk.
Senate President Ralph Torres (R-Saipan) and other officials said yesterday that the governor has scheduled the budget bill’s signing today.
This comes after the governor himself said on Thursday that he is close to acting on the budget bill. He said there are concerns but “nothing major.”
If and when he signs the budget bill today, it would be a record-early for the CNMI. It would still be more than two weeks before the Sept. 30 deadline.
The CNMI government must have a new budget on or before Oct. 1, the start of fiscal year 2015, or the government would have to partially shut down again.
The budget bill that’s before Inos went through a bicameral committee that came up with a compromise House-Senate version. The compromises included those pertaining to education funding, restoration of Tinian’s prior year funding level, and scrapping of a provision waiving taxes and gaming fees in exchange for the government$400,000 in unpaid La Fiesta leases, among other things.
“We are getting there. We are pretty close. I do believe we have a budget, but it’s just that we want to make sure that we point out some areas of concern,” Inos told reporters on Thursday on Capital Hill.
