Sen. Mark Rudimch, chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means said the “Senate’s position is to try and pass their version of the FY 2011 within this month of August but no later than Friday or Sept. 3.
Committee members met on Monday to discuss the budget.
Earlier Rudimch said that the Senate will come up with a realistic version of the FY2011 budget.
He said that the House of Delegates version of the budget projected higher revenue collection which is contrary to the June 30 quarterly financial report which showed that the government has fallen short of its target collection.
From this figure, he said his committee is now comparing the two dissimilar budget proposals for FY 2011.
Earlier the senator said he does not plan to hold a top-down, line by line hearing for each budget line as most of the information has been collected from the government sectors and the House committee hearings on the FY2011 budget.
However in the Monday’s meeting, it was not clear whether the Senate plans on conducting public hearings.
The financial report showed that the government as of June 30 only collected 69 percent of its projected local revenues which could result to at least $2 million shortfall for FY2010.
The House version of the Committee on Ways and Means in its report stated that based on its analysis of financial information, local revenues can be projected at $37 million and is convinced that FY2011 is a lot better than 2010.
Rudimch however said the 3rd quarter report says otherwise compared to the “optimistic” version of the HOD.
As of June 30, the government has only collected $25,484,409 local revenues and the target amount is $37,009,000.
The government needs to collect $11,524,591 by the end of the fiscal year in order to avoid accumulated deficit.
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