BUDGET DEADLOCK House rejects Senate changes to 2000 spending plan

The government will have to forego having a balanced budget for the current fiscal year.
Lawmakers appeared headed into a deadlock on the FY 2000 budget proposal as the House of Representatives yesterday rejected as expected increases in funding level approved by the Senate for Rota and Tinian municipalities as well as other government programs.

Due to inability to get support for its actions, the upper house may just abandon negotiation with its counterpart in to reach a compromise as it is already more than halfway into the fiscal year.

Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee chair Sen. Edward U. Maratita said he will push for the dissolution of a proposed bicameral conference which would have discussed the differences between both chambers.

“It would be a waste of time to go into a conference, knowing that we are not going to move forward. It’s going to be a deadlock,” he said in an interview yesterday.

The House earlier unanimously voted not to accept the amendments to the budget bill, citing as primary reason the recommendation to wipe out all the $4 million earmarked for payment of government utilities.

Senators, in approving the budget early this month, took away that appropriation in order to increase spending level for Rota and Tinian by additional $2 million each to reach over $15 million per municipality.

But the action will affect the financial shape of the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation amid the mounting unpaid bills incurred by the government, according to House Floor Leader Oscar M. Babauta.

In fact, he said they had considered shifting utilities budget during the House deliberation for other priority programs, but decided against it because of the growing debt owed by the government to CUC which at present amounts to more than $11 million.

“It’s a matter of priority,” said Mr. Babauta, noting that the leadership had provided substantial hikes to education, health and public safety under its own proposal.

Compromise

We expressed hope, however, that the House would be able to work out an agreement with the Senate so that the $211 million projected revenues for this year will be allocated accordingly to all departments and agencies before FY 2000 ends September 30.

“The worst case scenario is that if the conference breaks down, we have no other choice but to allow a continuing resolution,” Mr. Babauta explained. “That will hamper all the programs.”

He disclosed that the House will name by today three members to sit down with three representatives from the Senate in the bicameral table.

But negotiation may not take place at all as Mr. Maratita said he would ask the Senate President to dissolve that meeting and instead, begin review on FY 2001 budget proposal in joint undertaking with the lower house.

“I hope both houses will get together and jointly address the concerns so that both houses will pass the new budget smoothly,” he said.

Sen. Ramon S. Guerrero, who had proposed the elimination of utilities payment to the upper chamber, believed the government will be able to operate efficiently even without the approved budget.

“There should not be a budget for 2000,” he told in a separate interview. “Senator Maratita should start moving his body and soul and start sitting down so we can have a 2001 budget before October.”

Under the Constitution, if there is no approved fiscal budget, the government will run under the same spending limit as in the previous year to avoid shutting down its operations. In FY 99, the budget was placed at $216 million or two percent higher than the proposal for this year.

The Legislature has been unable to pass the budget since last year due to disagreement on how to distribute the cash resources which have continued to shrink in the last few years.

For the past four years, the government has operated without a balance budget, except only during FY 98 when the legislators approved Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio’s spending package to help him manage the dwindling revenues in his first year in office.

Early this month, the governor submitted his new budget proposal for FY 2001 amounting to $220 million which the Legislature must approve before the next fiscal year begins in Oct. 1 to prevent adoption of another continuing resolution.