“It was a friendly treat,” he said, referring to one of the committee members who paid for the coffee.
At 1:30 p.m., the members proceeded to their official meeting in the Senate chamber where they joined by Lt. Gov. Eloy Inos, Finance Secretary Robert Shrack and Office of Management and Budget Director Vicky Villagomez.
Also in the meeting were Public School System officials.
A heated discussion eventually broke out between Inos and PSS financial consultant Ed Tenorio.
Inos also argued with PSS federal programs officer Tim Thornburgh.
They disagreed over several items in the PSS budget, including the appropriation for utilities.
Tenorio said of the $9.1 million appropriated for the government’s utilities, PSS should get some $3 million.
Inos strongly disagreed.
But Sen. Ralph DLG Torres, R-Saipan and a member of the conference committee, told Tenorio and Thornburgh: “We’re going to give PSS the $31 million it needs” — referring to the amount requested by the school system —
“provided PSS will take care of its own utilities.”
The budget bill, or H.B. 17-96 as amended by Senate, appropriated only $30 million for PSS.
Thornburgh said they got a call from the U.S. Department of Education last week, instructing PSS that the CNMI must add $1 million to the PSS budget so it could meet the local funding level required by the federal government, which has been providing PSS millions of dollars in annual grants.
Lawmakers also learned yesterday that they had to add $7 million to the government’s contributions to the Retirement Fund as ordered by the court.
If the senators would insist on an eight- instead of a 16-hour cut in government working hours, the Legislature must raise another $4.6 million, the administration said.
In short, the government must raise $12.6 million to provide the additional funding needed by PSS, the Retirement Fund and government payroll.
Basa, who chairs the conference committee, said he is still confident that a balanced budget will be passed before Oct. 1.
“All of the members want to pass a balanced budget as soon as possible,” he said.
Failure to do so will result in a government shutdown with the exemption of critical agencies.
Basa said there is no agreement yet whether to retain the 16-hour cut as proposed by the administration or reduce it to eight hours as recommended by the Senate.
