THE Senate on Tuesday adopted House Concurrent Resolution 22-2 which pertains to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ $109.3 million revised fiscal year 2023 budget, but rejected by a vote of 5 to 3 a proposal to reserve $13 million of the $150.4 million projected revenue for the 25% of the retirees’ pension.
All of the eight senators present voted to adopt Rep. Donald Manglona’s H.C.R. 22-2 approving the revised FY 2023 projected revenues and the funds available for appropriation in the governor’s revised submission on July 1.
Sen. Frank Q. Cruz was absent.
The Senate also unanimously adopted Sen. Victor B. Hocog’s floor amendment to reflect the changes between the governor’s initial budget submission on April 1 and his revised budget submission on July 1.
In the governor’s initial budget submission on April 1, a total of $49,062,925 was allotted for the NMI Settlement Fund, pension obligation bonds, and Customs, Immigration and Quarantine overtime pay. In July 1’s revised budget submission, the total allotments were down to $46,062,925 while increasing by $3 million the resources available for appropriation.
Prior to the vote on the concurrent resolution, Sen. Paul A. Manglona offered a floor amendment to reserve $13 million for the retirees’ 25%. Sen. Edith Deleon Guerrero seconded the motion.
Senate Vice President Justo Quitugua asked Senate legal counsel Antoinette Villagomez if an amendment to a concurrent resolution “is allowable.”
Villagomez said the responsibility to allocate the amount as proposed by Senator Manglona “falls in the hands of the governor.” She said only the governor can identify revenues for allotments. If the Senate would adopt Senator Manglona’s proposed amendment to the concurrent resolution, the governor’s $109.3 million will be $13 million less, she added.
She said the governor’s revised budget submission “will be distorted and the governor will have to start all over again and the House and Senate will also have to start all over again [and have to figure out] where to cut that $13 million from.”
She also reminded the senators that the CNMI Constitution requires the Legislature to pass a balanced budget. If the Senate makes changes to the governor’s submission, the budget may not be balanced anymore, she added.
Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider, Senate Vice President Justo Quitugua, Senate Floor Leader Vinnie Sablan, Sens. Karl King-Nabors and Victor B. Hocog voted against Sen. Manglona’s floor amendment.
Aside from Manglona, the two other members of the minority bloc, Deleon Guerrero and Sen. Teresita Santos, voted yes.
According to Deleon Guerrero, “This is a very critical amendment to ensure that the Legislature and our government continue to fully fund the retirees’ 25% retirement pension benefit in fiscal year 2023.”
She said that although under the settlement agreement, only 75% of the retirees’ pension is guaranteed, “let us all be reminded that we all made a commitment under Article 3, Section 20 of our Constitution that accrued benefits of our retirement system shall neither be diminished nor impaired.”
Sen. Manglona said his amendment “is our opportunity to show where our priority is with regards to our retirees’ 25% annuities.”
He added, “Just as we set aside in this concurrent resolution [funds] for debt service and other earmarks, we can set aside $13 million now for the 25% retirement pension. We all know where the revenue source of the 25% of the pension comes from. It’s from the casino license fee. So, we cannot allow our inaction for so long on key legislation while we wait to address our casino industry’s financial mess and troubles. This inaction affects the lives of our retirees and manamko’. It’s bad enough that this escalating inflation is affecting our senior citizens the most. As if the pandemic hasn’t been hard enough on all of us, especially our retirees. Needless to say, our retirees are in a tough spot and are all very anxious today.”
Paul A. Manglona
