A joint legislative committee reviewing the Babauta administration\u2019s proposed $226-million appropriation for 2005 has so far reached a consensus to keep the annual budget at the current level of $213 million, according to Senate Vice President Diego M. Songao.<\/p>\n
In an interview yesterday, Songao said that members of the joint panel \u201cpretty much agree on that [$213 million].\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at $213 million. We\u2019re quite comfortable with that figure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said, though, that the Senate may agree to a bigger budget, considering a projected collection of up to $6 million in anticipation of the passage of House Bill 14-180.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the Senate side, we\u2019re looking at a bigger budget,\u201d he said. The budget bill has passed the House and is now pending at the Senate.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking at $213 [million], which does not include that [projected collection] yet, we can [even] bump up the budget to a little more than $213 million,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The House-approved H.B. 14-180, which seeks to repeal 4 CMC Division 1 Sections 1102 through 6 of Chapters 1, 8, and 9 of the Commonwealth Code, aims to provide a detailed administrative provision necessary for the application and enforcement of general revenue and taxation laws, including liens, levies, examinations, and summons.<\/p>\n
Senate President Joaquin Adriano, for his part, said that a $213 million budget \u201cis more than acceptable this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s the highest we can go for now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Senate leadership said that, should government collection exceed the budget, the Legislature could always provide a supplemental appropriation.<\/p>\n
\u201cLawmakers say that we should stay with $213 million. If we generate more, then we\u2019d make a supplemental budget,\u201d Songao said.<\/p>\n
Meantime, the Senate Vice President expressed opposition to the administration\u2019s cost reduction plan, saying it would affect many people who have not gotten their lump sum bonus, annual increments, and other compensation from the government.<\/p>\n
\u201cReduction of costs should not be done at this time. Suspending it for one year as proposed is not good. People have not been getting their money for a year now, so I totally disagree with that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As to the administration\u2019s proposed revenue enhancement plan, he said: \u201cI agree with some and I don\u2019t agree with some.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said he agrees with the occupancy tax increase, reduction of tax rebate by 10 percent, and vehicle related fee increase.<\/p>\n
The administration\u2019s integrated fiscal plan aims to generate over $21 million in revenues for next fiscal year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A joint legislative committee reviewing the Babauta administration\u2019s proposed $226-million appropriation for 2005 has so far reached a consensus to keep the annual budget at the current level of $213 million, according to Senate Vice President Diego M. Songao.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83117","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}