The House of Representatives has concurred with Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 budget proposal of $258.1 million for fiscal year 2019, effectively jumpstarting the budget process.<\/p>\n
In an interview with House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Angel A. Demapan (R-Saipan), he said the House concurred during last Tuesday\u2019s session with Torres\u2019 budget projection for the next fiscal year and his committee is ready to hold budget hearings in about two weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n
Demapan gave the statement moments after the House unanimously voted on Demapan\u2019s House Concurrent Resolution 20-02, which indicates Torres\u2019 identified funding of $258.1 million is approved after consulting with the Department of Finance and the Office of Management and Budget in a committee meeting last week.<\/p>\n
While $258.1 million was identified for all of fiscal year 2019, which starts this Oct. 1, 2018 and ends on Sept. 30, 2019, only $167 million is available for appropriation after earmarked funds are transferred.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working with the departments and agencies and some of the autonomous agencies to work on their schedules,\u201d said Demapan. He said critical agencies such as the Public School System, law enforcement, and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., among others, would be prioritized in the budget hearing scheduling.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the critical programs go first,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Torres announced the $258.1-million budget for fiscal year 2019 in an April 2 statement, taking note of a 14-percent increase, or about $21.4 million, from the previous fiscal year\u2019s $236.7- million budget.<\/p>\n
The announcement highlighted proposed earmarks of $42.7 million to PSS, which is more than 25 percent as constitutionally mandated, and $5.5 million to CHCC for the compensation of indigent care and care for inmates. The announcement also noted that this was the \u201cfirst time in years\u201d that both were included in the proposed budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The House of Representatives has concurred with Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 budget proposal of $258.1…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,140,4072,19437],"class_list":["post-274862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-budget","tag-commonwealth-healthcare-corp","tag-house-concurrent-resolution","tag-means-committee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274862","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=274862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}