{"id":369323,"date":"2022-05-30T06:00:15","date_gmt":"2022-05-29T20:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=369323"},"modified":"2022-05-30T06:00:15","modified_gmt":"2022-05-29T20:00:15","slug":"atalig-disappointed-with-administrations-budget-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/atalig-disappointed-with-administrations-budget-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"Atalig disappointed with administration\u2019s budget proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Donald M. Manglona and Efraim M. Atalig<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rota Mayor Efraim M. Atalig said Thursday that he and the directors of the Rota Mayor\u2019s Office are disappointed with the administration\u2019s budget request for Rota for fiscal year 2023, specifically for deleting their budget for \u201call others.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee\u2019s budget hearing for the Rota Mayor\u2019s Office held at the Centron Hustisia on Rota, Atalig urged the committee to help them restore their budget.<\/p>\n

The mayor said that when he asked about the matter, he was told that Gov. Ralph DLG Torres will be submitting to the House an amendment to the budget proposal on July 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m hoping that by then, our budget for \u2018all others\u2019 can be restored,\u201d he said. He did not specify the amount of his budget request for \u201call others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atalig said all they did with their 2023 budget request was mirror their request for the 2022 budget. \u201cWe didn\u2019t ask for more or less, [but] just the same. But as you probably can see, \u2018all others\u2019 is not there. So like I said at the outset, we\u2019re very upset. So I don\u2019t know what else to say. But it’s not good for Rota,\u201d the mayor said.<\/p>\n

House and Ways Committee chair Rep. Donald Manglona (Ind-Rota) stated that upon reviewing the governor\u2019s proposal, the mayor was correct in saying that the governor\u2019s proposal mainly protected the personnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so what we\u2019re here to do is kind of understand what are some of the operational needs that we can try to support and understand. What are the highest costs and expenditure and what would that mean to the agencies,\u201d Manglona said.<\/p>\n

He said Atalig has submitted a budget request of $3.1 million: about $2.7 million or $2.8 million for personnel and the rest for operations and utilities at $225,000.<\/p>\n

He said from their understanding the utilities will be shouldered by the administration.
\nManglona said that Atalig had requested for 86 personnel in his budget submission, but the governor had proposed 110 personnel, \u201cso that\u2019s one of the main areas that we would like to address and understand. Why there\u2019s this huge gap between the mayor\u2019s submission as well as the governor\u2019s proposal?\u201d Manglona said.<\/p>\n

Atalig told the committee that they also received the administration\u2019s submission to the Legislature with respect to the budget for personnel, which according to him contains some errors. He said they requested what the municipality employees have been earning, but the administration\u2019s submission show that they\u2019d now be receiving less.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were to approve that budget, am I [will have to] go back to the employees and say, \u2018I\u2019m sorry you used to work for $20 an hour, for example, and now\u2026it\u2019s only $15.\u2019 I mean, what is that for? I don\u2019t understand that,\u201d Atalig said.<\/p>\n

He said the biggest problem with the submission of budget is the personnel and for the \u201call others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manglona, however, explained that there are two budget submissions by the administration\u2014Volume 1 and 4. Manglona asked the mayor if he was able to review Volume 4, which is the American Rescue Plan Act funding that covers the shortfall for what is seen in the general fund budget.
\nThe chair said the general fund budget revert employees back to the reduced hours and furloughs that the CNMI experienced last fiscal year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the Volume 4 fills in that additional 16 hours or 20% as well as for all employees that were furloughed,\u201d Manglona said.<\/p>\n

Atalig said he is not aware of Volume 4.
\nManglona said Volume 4 should take care of the salary difference between what is seen in the general fund Volume 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the ARPA only covers the shortfall in personnel. It\u2019s still the same with operations where there\u2019s none for the municipality,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In response to Manglona\u2019s inquiry on the number of employees, Atalig said for the current fiscal year, overall under his office, they have 60 employees funded by ARPA and the remaining 86 being funded by the general fund.<\/p>\n

Manglona noted that Atalig requested a budget submission for 86 employees for fiscal year 2023, but the governor proposed 110.<\/p>\n

Atalig said to him it\u2019s good that the governor gives them full time employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s not good that he didn\u2019t give us the funds. The reason I requested 86 is because those are the people that are now working. So maybe I don\u2019t know, later on he might find some funds and give it to me,\u201d the mayor said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rota Mayor Efraim M. Atalig said Thursday that he and the directors of the Rota…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":369324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-369323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-budget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369323","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}