In explaining his vote against the budget bill for fiscal year 2018, Sen. Paul Manglo\u00f1a (Ind-Rota) believes the Legislature owes the Public School System $11 million more and the Settlement Fund $6 million in additional funding.<\/p>\n
Manglo\u00f1a, a former Senate president, was the sole \u201cnay\u201d vote on the budget bill during an emergency Senate session last Saturday, while Sen. Teresita Santos (R-Rota) voted for the budget \u201cwith reservation.\u201d The House passed the budget unanimously.<\/p>\n
Manglo\u00f1a, who read his comments into the record based on a four-page letter, pointed out that the CNMI Constitution mandates a budget for PSS that is 25 percent \u201cof what is considered the general fund.\u201d With general fund revenues estimated at $46 million, 25 percent of that is $11 million, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur actions\u2026could mean an approximately $11 million shortfall for PSS this coming fiscal year alone,\u201d said Manglo\u00f1a, adding that the amount could be even more if fiscal years 2015 to 2017 are included. <\/p>\n
Manglo\u00f1a also believes PSS should receive 25 percent of casino-generated gross revenue tax, or CGRT,. He said that this year\u2019s CGRT is estimated at about $58 million and that PSS should receive $14.5 million, a quarter of the total amount. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor this year so far, we have not given PSS a single dollar. Yet we have passed several CGRT piecemeal appropriations totaling more than $28 million,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A previous supplemental appropriation went to the payment of land compensation judgments as well as the retroactive lump-sum pay. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am convinced that in this fiscal year 2018 budget bill, we owe PSS [about] $11 million\u2026and [the] Settlement Fund [about] $6 million more in adjusted annual minimum payment,\u201d said Manglo\u00f1a, adding that the $6 million is possibly owed the Settlement Fund as per the Settlement Fund Agreement., which sets an annual minimum payment to be remitted to the Fund annually. If the annual minimum payment is less than 17 percent of the total annual revenue for that certain fiscal year, then the difference must be paid to the Settlement Fund. The Legislature previously appropriated a total of $7.1 million to the Settlement Fund to settle the balances for fiscal years 2014 and 2015.<\/p>\n
Senate President Arnold I. Palacios (R-Saipan) explained that the audit report for fiscal year 2016 has yet to be released so the amount owed to the Settlement Fund for fiscal year 2016 has not been determined.<\/p>\n
Same passion<\/strong><\/p>\n Sen. Sixto Igisomar (R-Saipan) said during budget deliberations that the Senate is fully aware of what Manglo\u00f1a was stating. He also assured Manglo\u00f1a that the Senate hears him.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all feel the same way\u2014we all believe in the same priorities,\u201d said Igisomar, adding that all the items Manglo\u00f1a mentioned were discussed during Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee meetings. <\/p>\n Igisomar told the Senate floor that he agrees with Manglona that the \u201cretirees\u2019 pension should not be diminished or impaired.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat statement was brought to this Legislature when I was chairman of the Retirement Fund and then [I was] fired when I came here telling this Legislature to pay their employer contributions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel you, I hear you. We are all share the same passion. Our people need our help,\u201d said Igisomar.<\/p>\n \u2018Yes with reservation\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Prior to this, Santos told the Senate that she noticed a reduction of \u201cover a hundred thousand\u201d in the budget of the first senatorial district.<\/p>\n \u201cI have also noticed that in the compromise budget, the controversial and ludicrous salary increases were restored\u2026such that if the court rules that the salary increase is enforceable, the funding is readily available,\u201d she said, referring to the certified question filed with the CNMI Supreme Court by Attorney General Edward Manibusan and Finance Secretary Larissa Larson.<\/p>\n If the court deems the increase to be unconstitutional, $104,759 will be diverted to the Department of Public Works for streetlights and $380,900 will go to the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.<\/p>\n \u201cThe [salary increase] issue could be addressed through a standalone legislation so more reviews or studies could be made as to what is actually a reasonable salary for legislators,\u201d said Santos, adding that she hopes the court comes out with a ruling so that if it is deemed unconstitutional, the funding could be \u201creleased immediately\u201d to DPW and CHCC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In explaining his vote against the budget bill for fiscal year 2018, Sen. Paul Manglo\u00f1a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[20,18356,40,18357],"class_list":["post-260603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-budget","tag-cgrt","tag-pss","tag-settlement-fund-agreement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260603","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260603\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}