‘New budget impossible now’

The Senate Committee on Fiscal Affairs said Friday that it has yet to receive the House-approved budget resolution, which identifies $206.5 million in available resources for fiscal year 2006. This continued delay has prompted the panel chair to predict that it would be “impossible” now to enact a budget before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.

“It’s not with me yet. I’ve been looking for it since I heard that the House has approved it but up to now it has not reached my desk,” said panel chair Sen. Joseph Mendiola.

The lower chamber approved House Concurrent Resolution 14-3 during its session on Sept. 9. The Senate held a session on Wednesday, Sept. 21.

According to Mendiola, the Senate’s agenda did not reflect the H.C.R. 14-3. “I know it’s not there. Otherwise, I would immediately move that we prioritize it,” said the senator.

The Senate clerk office usually immediately includes all communications from the House and other offices on the agenda. As of Friday, the House clerk said that H.C.R. 14-3 has already been forwarded to the Senate.

The transmission of a certain measure or communication can be delayed or postponed at the request of lawmakers.

House Ways and Means Committee chair Norman S. Palacios said Friday that he had thought that the resolution has been with the Senate ever since it was passed.

“We’re just waiting for the Senate now,” he said.

Mendiola, for his part, said he could not say if there is a deliberate effort by the House to delay the passage of the budget resolution.

“As far as I’m concerned, I have not received it. I’m very disappointed with this whole thing. We’ve always been ready to act on it since day one. It’s almost the end of the fiscal year and we have not even fully discussed it,” he said.

The senator, who had always expressed optimism that a budget bill could be passed during an election year, said Friday that doing it now is impossible.

“I don’t think it’s possible now. It’s impossible,” he said.

He said that, while a joint session could be convened to pass the budget, he said that the respective panels—House Ways and Means and Senate Fiscal Affairs—are not even ready to recommend a sound measure.

“A joint session is good, but what will you do there? You can’t just jump into a joint session. The proper way is to refer it to respective committees,” he said.

The House earlier adopted H.C.R. 14-3, which identifies $206.5 million as the government’s only available resources for fiscal year 2006.

The measure is $7 million less than the continuing resolution. H.C.R. 14-3 only identifies the available resources; it does not show how it would be divided among government offices.

H.C.R. 14-3 rejects the Babauta administration’s proposed revenue enhancement measures that is projected to raise nearly $20 million and which form part of its $225.8 million budget submission last April.

The administration earlier asked the Legislature to raise the poker fee by $6,000, suspend Tobacco Control and Tobacco Settlement Funds, and divert local poker funds to the General Fund to ensure additional funds for education and other basic services.

The administration said that, without these actions, the government would only be collecting $206 million in fiscal year 2006.