{"id":38866,"date":"2014-06-16T04:00:14","date_gmt":"2014-06-15T18:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=38866"},"modified":"2014-06-16T04:00:14","modified_gmt":"2014-06-15T18:00:14","slug":"house-oks-12m-supplemental-budget-debate-5m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/house-oks-12m-supplemental-budget-debate-5m\/","title":{"rendered":"House OKs $12M supplemental budget after debate on $5M"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"KSPN<\/a>
KSPN 2 news director Bob Coldeen, center, shakes hands with Rep. John Paul Sablan (Cov-Saipan), left, while Speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan), right, and other lawmakers applaud during the House\u2019s presentation Thursday of Sablan\u2019s Commemorative Resolution 18-9, honoring Coldeen for a \u201cdistinguished career in sports and commend his countless accomplishments and contributions\u201d to the CNMI people. (Haidee V. Eugenio)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nThe House of Representatives passed late Thursday afternoon a $12.386 million supplemental 2014 budget bill, but not after debating a proposed floor amendment to set aside $5 million to pay judgments against the government including land compensation instead of appropriating that amount to the retirement settlement trust, as originally intended.<\/p>\n

Rep. Tony Sablan (Ind-Saipan), author of the supplemental budget measure or House Bill 18-192, along with other members, said if the government defaults on its annual minimum payment to the retirement settlement trust, the judgment against the government would be over $770 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will essentially bankrupt the government if we default on it\u2026that\u2019s the consequence,\u201d Sablan said during session.<\/p>\n

Gov. Eloy S. Inos\u2019 proposed $12.386 million supplemental budget for 2014 offers to set aside $7.386 million for the government-employer share in the health and life insurance plan, while $5 million will be added to the $20 million earlier appropriated to complete the $25 million required minimum payment to the settlement trust fiscal year FY 2014.<\/p>\n

But Rep. Ray Tebuteb (Ind-Saipan) offered a floor amendment to use that $5 million instead to pay for judgments against the government including unpaid land compensation. Tebuteb reminded his colleagues about the government\u2019s prior year obligations.<\/p>\n

House members took turns opposing or supporting Tebuteb\u2019s proposed floor amendment.<\/p>\n

In the end, 11 members voted to reject Tebuteb\u2019s proposed floor amendment, while seven members supported it. <\/p>\n

One member, Rep. Trenton Conner (Ind-Tinian), abstained. Rep. Teresita Santos (R-Rota) was excused from the session as she was on Rota for school graduations.<\/p>\n

The 11 who voted against Tebuteb\u2019s plan to divert $5 million away from the retirement settlement trust and into land compensation payments and other prior government obligations were: Reps. Antonio Agulto (Ind-Saipan), George Camacho (R-Saipan), Frank Dela Cruz (Ind-Saipan), Larry Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan), Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan), Felicidad Ogumoro (R-Saipan), Tony Sablan (Ind-Saipan), John Paul Sablan (Cov-Saipan), Mario Taitano (Ind-Saipan), Christopher Leon Guerrero (Cov-Saipan), and Speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan).<\/p>\n

The seven who supported Tebuteb\u2019s amendment were Reps. Janet Maratita (Ind-Saipan), Richard Seman (R-Saipan), Tebuteb, Edmund Villagomez (Cov-Saipan), Ralph Yumul (Ind-Saipan), Anthony Benavente (Ind-Saipan), and Roman Benavente (Ind-Saipan).<\/p>\n

Yumul\u2019s proposed floor amendment to set aside $60,000 for the Commonwealth Election Commission for its expenses related to the November 2014 elections was adopted.<\/p>\n

Sablan\u2019s HB 18-192, House Draft 1 passed the House by a vote of 18-0. Maratita voted \u201cpresent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The House also adopted Rep. John Paul Sablan\u2019s House Joint Resolution 18-16 authorizing the CNMI through the governor to submit to the U.S. Department of Housing Urban Development actions plans for a block grant and an emergency solutions grant, among other things.<\/p>\n

House members also adopted JP Sablan\u2019s Commemorative Resolution 18-9, honoring KSPN 2\u2019s Bon Coldeen for a \u201cdistinguished career in sports and commend his countless accomplishments and contributions\u201d to the CNMI people. The House went into short recess to present Coldeen, along with his wife, with a copy of the resolution. Members also said in unison, \u201cDid you get that, Bob?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The House of Representatives passed late Thursday afternoon a $12.386 million supplemental 2014 budget bill,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":38868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,26,242,194],"class_list":["post-38866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-budget","tag-cnmi","tag-commonwealth-election-commission","tag-house-bill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38866","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\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}