NMC gets $157K more in compromise budget

The House of Representatives and Senate will hold a back-to-back session this afternoon to vote on a $134.33-million budget bill for fiscal year 2015, after a bicameral committee tasked to come up with a “compromise” version finalized their report and recommended giving Northern Marianas College $157,000 more to meet its maintenance-of-effort requirement, salary increases for some officials, and a two-month advance allotment instead of three months for lawmakers, among other things.

But the added funding for NMC is strictly for meeting its MOE requirement and “will not be used for salary increases and bonuses,” the conference committee said.

The bicameral panel identified eight primary issues, half of them resolved on their first meeting on Wednesday, including scrapping a provision allowing a $400,000 offsetting of government debt in exchange for waiver of taxes and gaming fees for Bridge Capital LLC.

“I feel confident that this budget bill from the conference committee will pass the Legislature,” House Ways and Means Committee chair Tony Sablan (Ind-Saipan) told Saipan Tribune yesterday.

Sablan is co-chair of the six-member conference committee, along with Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee chair Jovita Taimanao (Ind-Rota).

“I think the House and Senate conferees have done a responsible job. …We addressed the needs of the Public School System, NMC and other important agencies,” Sablan added.

When the budget bill passes the House and Senate today, it heads to Gov. Eloy S. Inos for action in a record-breaking speed, long before the Sept. 30 deadline.

Sablan, author of the original budget bill, said the bulk or some $125,000 of the added funding for NMC came from the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. subsidy, bringing back the CHC subsidy to the fiscal year 2014 level.

Some $21,000 appropriated for the first quarter allotment of the Office of the Attorney General was reallocated to NMC to meet its MOE requirement, and to Rota’s Department of Public Safety for fuel and lubrication.

In its report, the committee also agreed to increase the salaries of the Finance secretary to $70,000; Commerce secretary to $54,000; Division of Revenue and Taxation director to $65,000; Division of Customs director to $50,000; and CNMI Treasurer to $50,000. An earlier version of the budget bill gave the latter $54,000.

Conferees also agreed to a budget language ensuring that the Commonwealth Election Commission may receive an advanced allotment of $60,000 in addition to its regular monthly allotment for October 2014 in order to prepare for the 2014 elections.

Besides Sablan and Taimanao, the four other conferees were House vice speaker Frank Dela Cruz (Ind-Saipan), House floor leader Ralph Demapan (R-Saipan), Sen. Pete Reyes (Ind-Saipan), and Sen. Frank Cruz (R-Tinian).

Instead of a three-month advanced allotment for Senate and House members as the Senate proposed, the conferees compromised on a “two-month” advanced allotment under Section 703(c)(2).

On Wednesday, the conferees already announced a compromise on removing the $400,000 government debt offsetting; an added $1.161 million for PSS from the hotel/container tax, provided that it will be used to hire 35 new teachers and that PSS will provide a hiring status report to the Legislature within 120 days of the budget law’s signing; and restoring nearly $400,000 for Tinian taken from lawmakers’ operational accounts and leadership accounts.

The 2015 budget measure that is up for Senate and House vote at 1:30pm today is House Bill 18-201, House Draft 3, Senate Substitute 1, Senate Draft 2, Conference Committee Substitute 1.