‘No-budget, no-govt’ bill passes Legislature

The Legislature has approved a proposed constitutional amendment requiring the government to shut down whenever there is a budget impasse.

The Senate voted unanimously to approve a legislative initiative removing a constitutional provision that currently allows government operations to continue even if an annual budget appropriation is not enacted.

The initiative, which previously cleared the House of Representatives, will become law once ratified by a majority of the voters in a general election.

Proponents of the bill believe that a government shutdown provision will force the lawmakers and the governor to seriously review and enact a balanced budget on time. The initiative provides an exemption from the shutdown for critical services such as health and safety.

Over the past years, the CNMI government has enacted an average of one budget every four years-usually at the beginning of a governor’s term. In the years that no appropriation was passed, the government continued to operate under the last enacted budget. With the government’s dwindling resources, the “continuing resolution” practice has proven problematic. Because the previous fiscal year’s revenue collection is almost always higher than that of the current fiscal year, deficits have accumulated.

At present, the CNMI government has accrued a deficit of over $170 million.

“There are many costs associated with the failure to enact a budget [and those include] increased operational costs, the inability to deal with contractual obligations, and increased deficit spending resulting from working at the previous year’s spending levels. Other incalculable costs include the decline in public confidence in public officials, damage to the image of the Commonwealth government, and a poor credit rating,” states the initiative.

It remains unclear whether initiatives will make it to the ballot this November. The House of Representatives previously passed a bill allowing initiatives on the ballot, but the Senate reversed that provision by defining the Nov. 4, 2008 delegate election as a special election.

The Constitution requires that initiatives to amend the Constitution or a general law be placed on the ballot at a “regular general election.” The current definition of a “regular general election” only includes elections held in odd-numbered years on the first Saturday of November.