The passing away of municipal treasurer David Maratita, the Manhattan Project symposium and the trip of Mayor Ramon Dela Cruz to Hiroshima postponed the budget hearing scheduled for July 23.
The mayor’s chief executive officer Kimberlyn King-Hinds said they are still waiting for a confirmation from the Tinian legislative delegation regarding the date for the hearing.
King-Hinds said they are hoping to have everyone agree on a realistic number and a fair allocation of limited resources.
“With [the mayor’s proposed] budget, there is no robbing Peter to pay Paul. There is no room for creative financing. It’s basically a choice between keeping current pay levels or cutting back and redistributing to service debt and some programs,” she said in an e-mail interview.
At present, she said, the municipal government continues to reach out to members of the community, encouraging them to participate in the public hearing.
“I think that the communication through the media is a good start with regards to what’s going on with the municipality,” she added.
King-Hinds said they have had meetings with the legislative delegation and numerous discussions regarding how low local revenue collection is, the municipality’s debts and its inability to continue public programs.
She said the mayor has been very clear about the need to work with a more realistic budget.
“The issue is the fact that the funding source is not what it used to be and everyone is fighting to find some type of relief for their causes,” she added.
She said “people need to come to grips with the fact that over the course of many years, we’ve squandered our resources and we now have to adjust our expectations.”
