The Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office may not get its proposed budget for fiscal year 2016, but some of its concerns will be addressed.<\/p>\n
The Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office asked for \u201caround $3 million\u201d for fiscal year 2016, according to Saipan Mayor David Apatang. This is nearly double the governor\u2019s proposal of $1.6 million, which is the same level given to the Mayor\u2019s Office last fiscal year.<\/p>\n
Apatang, who was sworn in in January, said his budget proposal will fund an additional 10 full-time employees, beautification of the island, and cleanup drives in Kagman, San Vicente, and other areas in the middle part of Saipan.<\/p>\n
The proposed budget will also fund the Mayor\u2019s Office stray dog removal program, which he said is very costly.<\/p>\n
Rep. Antonio Sablan (R-Saipan), chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, which is overseeing the budget hearings, said the Mayor\u2019s Office might not get the additional $1 million, but some of its needs will be addressed.<\/p>\n
He said the committee will also study the pressing needs of the Mayor\u2019s Office including operational costs, its dog control program, prior obligations, and list of other obligations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we need to do is determine where the current budget is short, and try to come up with funding for these areas,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I think the committee will support the additional funding, particularly for rental costs, and purchase of equipment such as an excavator and a loader.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sablan said the committee recognizes that Apatang\u2019s proposed $3-million budget was the amount that Apatang deemed \u201cessential\u201d when he took on the position.<\/p>\n
A big item on the proposed budget is the $280,000 for the construction of a new shop behind the post office, which is unsafe and has structural issues, Sablan said.<\/p>\n
Sablan noted that Apatang is also coordinating with the Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council on other funding sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office may not get its proposed budget for fiscal year 2016, but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,428,44],"class_list":["post-201028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-budget","tag-san-vicente","tag-study"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}