Senate product for budget expected next week

A senator involved in the fiscal year 2019 is optimistic that the Senate would have a product for House review next week as the Senate commences their side of the budget process.

Sen. Jude Hofschneider (R-Tinian) yesterday told Saipan Tribune in an interview that a final Senate product for the fiscal year 2019 budget might be expected on July 25, 2018, well before the budget deadline of Sept. 31, 2018.

“…We anticipate to have a product on or before Wednesday next week. We are working very carefully…with what we received from the House,” said Hofschneider, referring to the budget bill the House passed after first and final reading during a July 6, 2018 session.

Hofschneider noted after yesterday’s Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee meeting, which he chairs, that the committee would be convening again this morning at 10am in the Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill.

Hofschneider’s committee over the weekend announced that it would be cancelling all budget hearings supposedly scheduled for this week. The budget hearings cancelled included those for the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. and the Northern Marianas College.

In response to why the budget hearings were cancelled, Hofschneider clarified that the committee would still be meeting with government agencies regarding their budget requests, just not in the formal setting.

“We realized that most of the agencies are satisfied with…the [budget proposal] the administration submitted, with the exemption of autonomous agencies such as CHCC and in this case, NMC,” he replied.

Hofschneider noted that the committee decided to “try and have a product as early as possible” by foregoing the remaining budget hearings.

“I will be reaching out to [NMC] to discuss their concerns and, not necessarily in a formal hearing, but basically their concern of what budget figures [they are comfortable with],” he said.

In a previous interview with House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Angel A. Demapan (R-Saipan), he said the call to cancel budget hearings was the call of the chair and a “prerogative of the Senate committee.”

Demapan said that since the fiscal analyst for the Legislature supports both the House and Senate committees, sharing of information is possible.

Hofschneider’s committee conducted budget hearings for the Department of Public Safety and the Public School System last July 10, 2018. The remaining budget hearings scheduled for the Senate committee were cancelled.