Pete A. lowers his budget request to $360K

Resident Rep. Pete A. Tenorio has submitted a reduced budget request to reflect his shortened term of office.

Tenorio is now asking for a little over $360,00 for his Washington and CNMI offices from Oct. 1, 2008 through Jan. 2, 2009. This is 40 percent of his original budget request for fiscal year 2009, which will run from October 2008 to September 2009

Tenorio was elected to serve as the CNMI resident representative to Washington, D.C. until January 2010. But the recently signed bill, which grants the Northern Marianas a delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives, cut his term short by one year. The new delegate, to be elected in November 2008, will take office on Jan. 3, 2009.

About $250,000, or two thirds, of Tenorio’s budget proposal is for personnel expenses. These include $145,000 for staff salaries, $55,000 for lump sum payment of annual leave, $27,000 for subsistence, and other costs.

He is also requesting $35,000 for the repatriation of Washington-based employees who were hired in the commonwealth. The amount includes the travel costs for the employees, their dependents, and excess baggage as provided in the employment contracts.

In addition to the $360,000 request, Tenorio has asked the governor and the legislators to allocate funding for roof repair work for the D.C. office, also called the Marianas House. He said minimal repair work was done recently to stop the leakage into the copier room and the first floor entrance area. He added that more extensive work must be done to maintain the real estate value of the government asset.

The Commonwealth expects to save $1 million a year from having a delegate to the U.S. Congress. This is equivalent to the annual budget of the resident representative’s office.

The federal government will pay for the expenses of the Northern Marianas delegate, including the delegate’s salary which is currently at $169,300 a year.

Under the delegate act, Northern Marianas will have a representative with limited voting powers to the U.S. House of Representatives. He can serve on committees, as well as vote on legislation at the committee level. But floor voting will not be permitted.

Similar to House members and other delegates, the CNMI delegate will be elected to Congress every two years.

The first election will take place this November. To be eligible, a candidate must be at least 25 years old, a U.S. citizen and CNMI resident for at least seven years before the election, and a qualified CNMI voter on the date of the election. A candidate for CNMI delegate must not be running for any other office.

To date, Tenorio is the only one to have announced his candidacy.