‘Conference committee is stuck’

The bicameral conference committee agreed on Friday 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 anticipated in its proposed budget submission.

The conference committee will resume their meeting today, Monday, at 1pm, hoping that by then they have a document from the administration recalculating the Hotel Occupancy Tax.

The bicameral conference committee was formed to come out with a mutually agreed figure in the proposed budget’s ceiling.

The conference committee meeting last Friday was just going in circles as the Senate committee maintained that the budget ceiling is at $163.4 million, while the House of Representatives’ counterpart committee insisted that it’s $172.5 million.

After hearing the respective counsels’ arguments, Sen. Donald M. Manglona (Ind-Rota), who chairs the Senate conference committee, stated that, without information [about the HOT recalculation], they’d have to proceed with what’s currently in front of them.

Manglona said the Senate conference committee stands firm in their position that that $163.4 million is the budget ceiling, unless they get any new information from the administration in the next day or two, after which they can then revisit this figure.

In the interim, Manglona offered a motion to approve the total identified budgetary resources for fiscal year 2024 at $163,415,313.

Before Manglona offered the motion, Rep. Ralph N. Yumul, who chairs the House’s conference committee, said during their recess, they were hoping to get the HOT information from the administration.

“But it hasn’t come in yet. And so with that we’re stuck and can’t move forward,” Yumul said.

Budget

Ralph N. Yumul

Donald M. Manglona