DURING their fiscal year 2023 budget bill negotiations, the House conferees agreed to the Senate proposal to source 80% of the government’s personnel costs from local revenue and 20% from the American Rescue Plan Act funds — instead of the other way around as the House originally wanted.
“It’s not that we conceded the 80/20,” said House Conference Committee chair Rep. Donald M. Manglona, who also chairs the House Committee on Ways and Means.
“It wasn’t a backdown,” he added. “One of the main reasons why we shifted with the 80/20” was the assurance they received from Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig that there will be $20 million available for Medicaid reimbursement.
In its version of the budget bill, the House proposed to allocate ARPA funds which have already been allotted by the governor.
The chair of the Senate conferees, Sen. Victor B. Hocog, said they brought up a legal opinion from the Office of the Attorney General stating that there was no need for the Legislature to appropriate the ARPA funds.
Hocog said the governor’s spending plan has already been approved by the U.S. Treasury.
“So, we all agreed to use the Senate version on 80/20 instead of 20/80,” he added.
In a separate interview, House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez said: “I’m just very relieved that — I know that it’s the eleventh-hour kind of deal, but [now] we can report to the people that something has been done and we can avoid a government shutdown.”
The House and Senate passed the conference committee’s version of the budget bill on Friday, Sept. 30, the last day of FY 2022. The governor, who signed the new budget on Saturday, Oct. 1, submitted his budget proposal to the Legislature on April 1, 2022.
Appearing virtually during the budget signing ceremony at the governor’s office on Saturday, Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider thanked the governor and his team, including Secretary Atalig, “for acting swiftly [on the budget, which is our] primary responsibility as elected officials of the CNMI.”
He added, “One of the messages that I often mentioned prior to the [bill’s] passage is that no one in the Senate was thinking of a shutdown…. It is that mindset and that collaborative effort with the leadership of the Senate, led by Fiscal Affairs chair Sen. Victor Hocog, that they went in and [negotiated with the House and] brought out that product that’s before you.”
He said the bill “is a good working product,” adding that he is grateful to the bicameral conference committee members for their work.
“It’s a good day, and we are ready to move forward, because we have to move forward together every day,” he added.
Donald Manglona
