“We’re just waiting for the House — we’re ready for the budget [bill],” Senate President Pete P. Reyes, R-Saipan, said in an interview on Friday.
He said the chairwoman of the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee, Maria T. Pangelinan, D-Saipan, “has done a lot of work already in reviewing the budget figures.”
With only 22 days left before the start of the new fiscal year, the bill is still with the House Ways and Means Committee.
According to Reyes, the Senate can pass a substitute bill “right away and send it back to the House.”
“I’m hoping that a joint conference committee will be formed so that we don’t need to toss the bill back and forth,” he added.
Asked if a new budget law could still be enacted before the end of the current fiscal year, Reyes said: “It’s doable. There’s a need to have a new budget.”
The CNMI government’s current budget ceiling is $163 million, but the administration projects to collect around $156 million only.
Finance Secretary Eloy Inos, in an earlier interview, said even without a new FY 2009 budget, the government would not be able to spend more than its actual revenue collections.
The administration is also proposing austerity and revenue-raising measures, but Reyes said “it’s unrealistic to have a budget based on bills that have not been passed.”
The House, he added, must approve the revenue-generating bills first.
“We have no choice but to work with the governor on the budget and the other pressing issues that affect the public,” Reyes said. “We don’t have to agree on everything, but we have to do something good for the people — doing nothing is unacceptable.”
The CNMI Constitution allows the last budget law to remain in effect until a new one is enacted.
Since 1998, the CNMI government has only enacted three budget laws.
