Pangelinan: Two options for budget

Sen. Maria Pangelinan, chairwoman of the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee, is proposing two options to trim the Legislature’s proposed $165.4-million budget plan for fiscal year 2009, which Gov. Benigno Fitial vetoed due to a decrease in projected revenue.

Pangelinan plans to discuss the options with Senate President Pete P. Reyes, House Speaker Arnold Palacios, members of the Senate’s Fiscal Affairs and House’s Ways and Mean committees, and legal counsel.

Pangelinan has prepared two options to reduce the general fund resources estimate to $148 million. Option one is to reduce government personnel costs at a rate of 7.77 percent. There would be no reduction of non-personnel costs.

Option two would reduce all costs at a rate of 5.27 percent.

Under both options, $200,000 would go to the La Fiesta lease appropriation and the Deportation Fund appropriation would be restored to $5. Also, legislative members’ salaries and benefits, including the employer contribution, would remain intact.

Pangelinan said cutting payroll is the only alternative, adding that it is ultimately up to the leadership.

“You cannot cut services anymore,” she said. “You cannot have people employed and they don’t have the logistical support to do their jobs. They don’t have pens, pencils, paper.”

Last week Fitial announced that starting Jan. 1 he was enacting a 5.5 percent budget cut against all government agencies to deal with the declining revenues.

Fitial pointed to an $8.7-million drop in the Department of Finance’s revenue projection in disapproving the budget plan on Dec. 24. He noted two major sources of the revenue decline: the impending closure of three of the four remaining garment manufacturers on Saipan and Northwest Airlines’ plan to stop the Osaka-Saipan route in March 2009.

Due to the nature of the timing of the veto and the holidays, it was difficult for the Legislature to convene, Pangelinan said. The Legislature received the official notice of the revenue decrease on Dec. 30.

According to the Constitution, Pangelinan said, only the governor can increase the revenue, so the Legislature cannot override the veto.

“We would have been increasing the revenue in violation of the Constitution,” she said.

The Senator said a budget is imperative for the Commonwealth.

“It gives an order in numbers so we know where the major expenditures are occurring,” she said. “If you do not have a budget you can not identify where major expenditures are occurring.”