By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

THE House of Representatives overrode yesterday morning Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s veto on a bill granting him reprogramming authority to the Public School System, only to reconsider its decision in the afternoon by replacing the measure with an amendment to the fiscal year 2007 budget.
Except for Rep. Candido Taman, R-Saipan, all 17 House members present voted to override the governor’s veto on H.B. 15-255.
The House endorsed the bill which essentially empowers the governor to reprogram up to $6 million to maintain the school system’s funding in light of the 15.6 percent budget reduction proposed by the administration.
On May 7, the governor vetoed H.B. 15-255 saying its enactment would be moot since he had submitted a revised budget proposal to spare PSS from further cuts.
“An amended budget, once approved, will allow for the disproportionate distribution of the reduction in resources of about $30 million in order to restore cuts to essential services’ activities,” Fitial said.
But the lawmakers were unconvinced.
After the House reconsidered the veto on H.B. 15-255, House Minority Leader Arnold I. Palacios, R-Saipan, and two others, introduced H.B. 15-265 which proposes “emergency amendments” to Public Law 15-28 or the fiscal year 2007 budget.
“The purpose of this Act is to provide the governor with reprogramming authority to supplement the budgets of critical executive and other departments without impinging on the separation of powers doctrine,” H.B. 15-265 stated.
“This Act is intended to supersede the proportional reduction measures taken by Governor Fitial on Feb. 28, 2007 and all conflicting provisions of law,” it added.
According to H.B. 15-265, the FY 2007 budget is set at $163.26 million “and any collections in excess of this amount identified from sources outside the general fund shall be available for appropriation by the Legislature.”
The local revenue identified will be distributed to all government agencies by implementing a 15.61 percent budget cut, across-the-board.
The administration’s proposal is for a 39.5 percent spending reduction to spare PSS and other critical agencies from the budget cuts.
House Bill 15-242, which seeks to reduce the budgets of at four autonomous agencies by at least 5 percent to raise more than $6 million for PSS and Northern Marianas College, still awaits the governor’s signature to become law.
The bill will reduce the financially troubled Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s budget by $5.88 million.