Compared to what Gov. Ralph DLG Torres proposed in his FY 2023 budget submission, the leadership of the CNMI House of Representatives increased the level of funding to critical healthcare, community and cultural affairs, and public safety departments and agencies.<\/p>\n
The simple truth is that the governor is completely wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cTake a look at the numbers that the governor proposed and compare them to what the Legislature appropriated. A simple comparison shows that the governor actually zero-funded operations for several key departments. This forces expenditure authorities to request ARPA money from the secretary of Finance on a case-by-case basis. This is not how we should be budgeting our departments and running the government. We in the Legislature used local funds and the funds that the governor tried to use for Medicaid reimbursement to give these critical entities as much funding as possible,\u201d said Ways and Means chair Rep. Donald Manglona (D-Saipan).<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there was any shortage in what the Legislature passed, it was still a substantial improvement over what the governor proposed. The numbers don\u2019t lie,\u201d said Rep. Joel Camacho (D-Saipan).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe governor makes several material misstatements that indicate that he either misread the budget bill or he is simply lying. Either way, he is wrong and his comments are utterly irresponsible and obviously driven by politics as opposed to fiscal analysis. For example, the governor claims that the Legislature decreased what was appropriated to the Carolinian Affairs Office by $94,000. Nonsense,\u201d said Rep. Denita Yangetmai (D-Saipan). \u201cThe House bill appropriated $5,373 more to the Carolinian Affairs Office than the governor\u2019s proposal,\u201d the Refaluwasch lawmaker said.<\/p>\n
The governor also claims that the House leadership reduced the Indigenous Affairs budget by $89,000. \u201cThis is untrue. This office had their budget reduced by $3,494 but this reduction reflects the removal of an unfilled vacancy. We increased their operations budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe governor fails to mention that his proposal for the Indigenous Affairs budget slashed their budget from $310,001 to just $151,367,\u201d said Yangetmai.<\/p>\n
The governor claims that the House leadership allocated $165,000 less to the Veterans Affairs Office. This is false. The governor proposed $286,838. The House bill actually appropriated $297,508. \u201cThere was no decrease. Period. In fact, we appropriated $10,670 more than what governor Torres allotted to this important office,\u201d said retired Army veteran Rep. Richard Lizama (D-Saipan).<\/p>\n
The governor claims that the Legislature cut the CNMI Scholarship Office by $151,000.<\/p>\n
However, this is false. The House increased funding to the scholarship office by a small amount.<\/p>\n
While Torres claims that the House leadership took $79,000 from the Women\u2019s Affair Office, in reality, the House increased their funding by $5,326. \u201cNot only was there was no reduction whatsoever, we managed to increase their funding over what Torres proposed,\u201d said Rep. Leila Staffler (D-Saipan).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe governor is misinforming the people. If he is intentionally lying then that is unforgivable . On the other hand, if he is being honest and unintentionally sharing false information, then his incompetence is inexcusable,\u201d said Ways and Means vice chair Rep. Corina Magofna (D-Saipan).<\/p>\n
The governor states that he is deeply disappointed with the House majority\u2019s decision to cut resources from essential governmental agencies and departments in favor of giving themselves an additional $1.2 million in allocations. \u201cThere was no increase over our current budget in FY 2022,\u201d said Rep. Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan). \u201cUnlike the Executive Branch, the Legislature and the Judiciary do not have any access to ARPA funds. What the Legislature appropriated for FY 2023 did not even match the current FY 2022 budget level. In truth we actually cut our budget compared to the current year, so the governor again totally misconstrues what we did,\u201d said Babauta. (PR)<\/p>\n
With respect to CHCC, the Governor claims that the House reduced its budget by $973,000.<\/p>\n
However, the House actually created two separate funding sources in the form of a Sugar Sweetened Beverage Tax and a Tobacco tax which are projected to provide over $3 million in additional revenue that will be allocated specially to CHCC.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBy increasing these taxes for just one year, we hope to raise revenue by taxing these optional items. We cannot legislate a healthy lifestyle but we can tax cigarettes and soft drinks\u2014things that are not essential,\u201d said Staffler.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe governor fails to mention that he zero-funded the Retirees\u2019 Pension Fund in FY 2023. His proposal provided absolutely nothing to the retirees in the FY 2023 budget. In contrast, the House found the money for our retirees. Aside from not identifying funds for the retirees, he also failed to provide funds for most of the CNMI Government\u2019s operations, including critical funding to first responders and other health and safety related agencies,\u201d\u00a0 said vice speaker Rep. BJ Attao (R-Saipan).<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of hiring an army of lawyers and giving huge raises to his cabinet, the governor should be cutting expenses and trying to be more fiscally responsible. He is over-spending like there is<\/p>\n
no tomorrow and we know that ARPA will not last forever. That fiscal cliff is coming,\u201d said Rep. Vicente Camacho (D-Saipaan).<\/p>\n
Lastly, the FY 2023 appropriations bill was passed by both sides of the House via a unanimous vote of both the House minority and majority. \u201cThe budget bill may have been a product of the Ways and Means Committee, but we have to acknowledge the Minority leadership who also voted yes\u2014those who voted, all supported the bill. This was not political,\u201d said Rep. Ed Propst (D-Saipan). (PR)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Compared to what Gov. Ralph DLG Torres proposed in his FY 2023 budget submission, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":374452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-375954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375954","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}