By Emmanuel T. Erediano
emmanuel@mvariety.com
Variety News Staff
THE Fiscal Reform Committee created by Gov. David M. Apatang last week laid out plans for a balanced fiscal year 2026 budget during its initial meeting held Monday in the governor’s conference room.
As part of the terms and conditions of the $5.7 million funding relief awarded by the U.S. Department of the Interior, the CNMI is required to develop a framework to sustainably balance the FY 2026 budget through reforms aimed at saving money and increasing government revenue.
Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary for Insular and International Affairs Angel Demapan informed Gov. Apatang that the CNMI government must submit the framework to OIA no later than Nov. 30, 2025, and implement the plan beginning Jan. 1, 2026.
The committee, composed of department and agency heads as well as the presiding officers of the Legislature, discussed both cost-cutting and revenue-generating proposals.
Among the cost-cutting measures proposed were a hiring freeze, work-hour reduction for government employees, reduction-in-force, and a travel freeze. They also discussed consolidating government programs, agencies’ financial divisions, supplier payment and procurement processes, and improving management of federal grants at the enterprise level.
The group also raised the idea of consolidating schools to address the decline in enrollment and transitioning management and operations from administrative to school-based positions, as well as shifting all government utility accounts to prepaid meters.
As for revenue-generating proposals, the committee discussed enhancing tax enforcement, imposing new construction and sales taxes, reviewing income tax structures and rebates, and requiring periodic cost-benefit analyses of tax expenditures.
In an interview after the meeting, House Ways and Means Committee Chair John Paul Sablan, who attended on behalf of Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez, said the quarterly allotments for the CNMI will depend on the outcome of the fiscal reform plan to be submitted to OIA.
“This reform plan,” he said, “will also be submitted to the U.S. Congress because funding relief for the second, third, and fourth quarters of the fiscal year will require congressional appropriation.”
“We need to fulfill these reform plans before we can get to the next quarter,” Sablan added, noting that OIA will play a vital role in lobbying for funding relief in the U.S. Congress.
Sablan said he had intended to raise the issue of the suspension of the Nutrition Assistance Program for the CNMI but did not have the chance because “the meeting was focused on the creation of the fiscal reform committee and the formation of subcommittees, since we need to report to OIA by November 30.”
He said NAP was not discussed during the meeting.
Emmanuel “Arnold” Erediano has a bachelor of science degree in Journalism. He started his career as police beat reporter. Loves to cook. Eats death threats for breakfast.
