‘Can we stomach further cuts in hours?’

At this point, Sen. Donald M. Manglona (Ind-Rota) does not think they can go below $115 million in the fiscal year 2024 budget as this would mean further cuts in hours of government employees across the board.

“I think the question that we need to ask each of ourselves is, can we stomach further reduction in hours across the board?” asked Manglona during the continuation of the bicameral conference committee meeting yesterday.

The conference committee, which was still in a meeting as of press time last night, had been stalled over the final number over how much next fiscal year’s budget is going to be and they were hoping to get updated numbers on the Hotel Occupancy Tax in order to come to an agreeable number.

Last Friday, the committee agreed to set for the meantime the total identified budgetary resources for fiscal year 2024 at $163.4 million and not $172.5 million as the Palacios-Apatang administration had proposed in its budget submission.

The Senate’s version of the concurrent resolution decreased the total earmarks from $57.1 million in the House version to $48 million. This brought to $115.4 million the net local revenue and resources available for appropriations, which is the same amount in the House’s version.

The committee resumed their meeting yesterday, hoping that by then they have a document from the administration recalculating the HOT. The committee’s meeting was delayed yesterday as members waited for the HOT document from the administration.

With the current proposal that the House had submitted, they’re already prepared for a reduction in the Judiciary and Legislature in order to address all areas, including Tinian, Manglona said.

Manglona said any further reduction in the $115 million net will result in further reduction in hours across the board.

“Just to recap from last week, if we go down to $106 million, we’re looking at 22 hours decrease across all branches. So that’s something that again, we have to ask ourselves at the end of the day,” he said.

Senate legal counsel Joe Bermudes said the only way to maintain $115 million is to collapse some of the earmarks.

“Mathematically, that’s the only way,” Bermudes said.

At 1:32pm yesterday, Rep. Ralph N. Yumul (Ind-Saipan) said they’re still waiting for some recalculation of the HOT and documentation. He said as they still have not received any information from the administration, they would be on recess to 3:30pm that same day.

At 3:30pm, Yumul announced that they haven’t received anything from the administration and that leaves them with no choice but to continue the meeting.

Manglona said that, in looking at the projections, in terms of visitors arrival, it looks like what was proposed last year was basically mirrored for next fiscal year. He said that, according to projections by the Marianas Visitors Authority, they are expecting to bring in tourists close to double what they brought in the first and second quarters.

Manglona chairs the Senate conference committee, while Yumul chairs the House of Representatives conference committee. The conference committee was formed to come out with a mutually agreed figure in the proposed budget’s ceiling.