House budget proposal: $145.2M

After weeks of back-and-forth, the House Ways and Means Committee finally came up with a $145.2-million budget bill for fiscal year 2018 that must be enacted before Sept. 30, 2017, to avert a CNMI government shutdown.

The bill is set to be introduced to the House of Representatives today.

Committee chair Rep. Angel Demapan (R-Saipan) said the bill—a product of “lengthy and tedious work” and multiple meetings—is a “workable budget package that remains within the confines of the total revenues identified by Gov. Ralph DLG Torres.”

To be introduced as House Bill 20-105, the budget bill continues a trend of sustained growth, indicating a 5.56-percent increase compared to the fiscal year 2017 budget.

HB 20-105 has only been adopted at the committee level, making changes inevitable in the form of opposing lawmakers. Opposition may come from Torres himself. HB 20-105 is merely the skeleton of the final budget.

Of the three branches of government, the Executive Branch got the lion’s share at $40.86 million. The Legislature gets $8.54 million, while the Judiciary is appropriated $6.64 million.

The Judiciary’s $6.64 million is an 11.1-percent increase compared to its 2017 budget of $5.97 million. Some 76.69 percent of the $6.64 million, or $5.09 million, goes to personnel, while 13.52 percent, or $897,665, goes to operations, and the remaining 9.79 percent or $650,000 goes to utilities.

The Legislature’s $8.54 million is a 22.61-percent increase compared to fiscal year 2017. About 52 percent, or $4.51 million, of its budget goes to personnel, while 46.29 percent, or $3.95 million of its budget, goes to operations. The remaining 0.8 percent, or $71,400, goes to utilities.

The Executive Branch’s $40.86 million is an 8.58-percent increase compared to fiscal year 2017. The $40.86 million is further divided among various offices of the Executive Branch. Commerce got $1.65 million, Community and Cultural Affairs got $2.93 million, Corrections got $5.29 million, Fire and Emergency Services got $4.07 million, Finance got $5.4 million, Labor got $910,852, Lands and Natural Resources got $3.47 million, Public Safety got $6.48 million, and Public Works got $3.75 million.

Notably, while most government agencies received substantial increases in budget compared to their budgets in fiscal year 2017, DOL received the shortest end of the stick for the fiscal year 2018 budget bill, receiving an increase of only $3,854.

Rota received $7.81 million in appropriations—an increase of 3.51 percent.

Tinian and Aguiguan was appropriated $7.70 million—an increase 1.74 percent.

Saipan and the Northern Islands received an appropriation of $3.27 million—an increase of 18.91 percent.

The Public School System was appropriated $35.99 million. A constitutional mandate requires the CNMI government to appropriate no less than a quarter of its total budget to PSS.

The total budget for appropriations is $145.26 million.