Department of Community and Cultural Affairs Secretary Mary Margaret Sablan appears before the House Ways and Means Committee on June 16, 2023.
DEPARTMENT of Community and Cultural Affairs Secretary Mary Margaret Sablan told the House Ways and Means Committee during a budget hearing on Friday that she wanted to cry because of her office’s lack of funds.
She said she was praying that “we’ll have a nicer budget than we did last year.” It’s “very difficult to operate from nothing so I’m hoping for a good meeting today and hopefully walk away with positive feedback from all of you.”
In his budget submission, Gov. Arnold I. Palacios proposed $1,847,887 for DCCA in fiscal year 2024. The department’s budget in the revised FY2023 appropriation is $1,544,162. For the office of the secretary, DCCA submitted a total of $372,773 for FY 2024 but the governor’s proposal was $282,194.
Sablan said when the directors of the divisions are in dire need of anything, they come to her office, but “I don’t know how to help them” due to lack of funding.
DCCA receives funds from the federal government but “you have to understand, [DCCA is] not just ‘community’ and ‘cultural.’ It’s a welfare agency,” she told lawmakers.
For some of DCCA programs, Sablan said, they have federal funds, but these are earmarked. She said they cannot just apply for federal money and say they need it to do what they need to do.
“No. We have to specify. Like everything else, we have to budget how much is for personnel, and how much is for operation, ..and that’s all you can use,” she said.
Sablan said they can only reprogram a certain amount, not to exceed 7%. “So that’s the thing with our federal money,” she added.
“So honestly, I’m very depressed coming here. I want to cry because what am I defending? Zero,” Sablan said.
Sablan also informed the committee that DCCA is going to have a budget shortfall for the Office on Aging. “That is going to be a big deal. We are trying to figure out how we are going to do it. And, you know, we talk about austerity, that’s going to hurt. It’s really going to hurt our poor people also,” she added.
She said during the previous administration “there was an abundance of money with the American Rescue Plan Act. And I’m hearing that it’s depleted. So where do we go from here?”
Sablan added. “I don’t know whose bright idea it was to put people on 100% ARPA, [including] civil service people.” She said they “went crazy” trying to figure out who were the employees that would be terminated due to lack of ARPA funds.
She said “you can’t terminate civil service employees, so we have to keep them. But how are we going to keep them if there’s no money?”
Sablan said they had to look into every federal account that can accommodate ARPA-funded employees. “But you know, that’s not right. We don’t tailor positions to the applicant. The applicant has to qualify for the position. And all of the sudden it was not about that. It was about just scrambling to find anything.”
The final decision, she said, was to just put them in, because we can’t lose them, per law.”
Sablan told lawmakers that DCCA is looking at corrective actions. “This is where you, all of you, I’m sorry, with all due respect — it’s you who can help us fix all of the discrepancies,” Sablan added.
The House Ways and Means Committee’s chairman, Rep Ralph N. Yumul, said majority of DCCA programs receive federal funds.
He said perhaps the reason DCCA’s operation budget was cut is to allow the department to utilize more federal grants.
But he also asked Sablan to update the committee “so we’ll have a better understanding.”
Should there be additional funds, he said the committee will try to address DCCA’s shortfall.
