Back-to-back session on Friday to pass budget

Although the conference committee did not come up with a draft budget yesterday as originally targeted, they were able to agree on more issues, including reinstating over $343,000 to the Executive Branch that the Senate had cut and giving the Public School System some $30 million and Northern Marianas College $5.2 million.

Rep. Ray Basa (Cov-Saipan), chairman of the eight-member panel, said last night that the panel expects to have a draft fiscal year 2012 budget this morning, and a final bill that will be pre-filed before 4:30pm today.

“This has been a smoother process than last year. Everybody went to this meeting with a goal of preventing a shutdown. Second, we didn’t have to debate about work hour cuts. This year is about shifting money,” the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee told Saipan Tribune.

Sen. Jovita Taimanao (Ind-Rota), chair of the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee, separately said that the House and Senate have agreed to hold a back-to-back session on Friday to act on the budget bill.

Basa said the House and Senate could also hold a session on Saturday, if a budget bill is not ready by today or Friday.

He added that some of the figures they worked on yesterday and the day before might change a bit today, as they continue to tweak the spending measure.

As of yesterday, the 29 lawmakers’ individual allocation will be $72,000 annually, not $71,000 as earlier reported. Senators had earlier proposed to zero out this allocation.

The House and Senate leadership account will now remain at $138,000 each, and no longer “zero” as senators wanted.

The joint panel agreed to maintain Rota’s appropriation as the House had proposed, while Tinian will get an additional $112,000 to almost equal Rota’s budget. The Senate earlier proposed an increase of $362,719 and $250,000 for Tinian and Rota, respectively.

These breakthroughs come with less than two weeks to go before the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1.

Besides hashing out differences, the conference committee had to break for about an hour to give way to a House session yesterday afternoon.

Acting governor Eloy S. Inos briefly joined the conferees yesterday afternoon to clarify some funding issues.

In an interview hours earlier, Inos said even if the government could terminate the annual $200,000 land lease for the La Fiesta property, “that doesn’t necessarily get us out of the financial obligation for the remaining rent.”

Inos said the administration does not recommend changing the annual lease, and will pursue revitalizing the former La Fiesta Mall for it to become a tourist attraction again.

He said the progress made by the conference committee gives the impression that a shutdown is no longer a possibility.

Without a budget passed and signed by Sept. 30, the government will have to shut down starting Oct. 1 and will remain so until a budget is passed.

Besides Basa and Taimanao, who are the official spokespersons for the conference committee, the other members are Senate Vice President Jude Hofschneider (R-Tinian), floor leader Pete Reyes (R-Saipan), Sen. Ralph Torres (R-Saipan), Rep. Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan), Rep. Fred Deleon Guerrero (R-Saipan) and Rep. Sylvester Iguel.