MEMBERS of the House Ways and Means Committee, in a joint statement on Tuesday, said they want to “set the record straight” regarding the fiscal year 2023 budget measure or House Bill 22-116, which is now pending in the Senate.
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres has said that the bill would “cut critical government resources from essential governmental agencies and departments in favor of giving themselves an additional $1.2 million for House allocations.”
But according to Ways and Means, compared “to what the governor proposed in his FY 2023 budget submission, the leadership of the CNMI House of Representatives increased the level of funding of critical healthcare, community and cultural affairs, and public safety departments and agencies. The simple truth is that Governor Torres is completely wrong.”
Rep. Donald Manglona, the committee chairman, said: “Take a look at the numbers that the governor proposed and compare them to what the Legislature appropriated. A simple comparison shows that the governor actually zero funded operations for several key departments. This forces expenditure authorities to request American Rescue Plan Act money from the Secretary of Finance on a case-by-case basis. This is not how we should be budgeting our departments and running the government. We in the Legislature used local funds and the funds that the governor tried to use for Medicaid reimbursement to give these critical entities as much funding as possible.”
Rep. Joel Camacho said, “If there was any shortage in what the House passed, it was still a substantial improvement over what the governor proposed. The numbers don’t lie.”
“The governor makes several material misstatements that indicate that he either misread the budget bill or he is simply lying,” Rep. Denita Yangetmai said.
“Either way, he is wrong and his comments are utterly irresponsible and obviously driven by politics as opposed to fiscal analysis. For example, the governor claims that the House decreased what was appropriated to the Carolinian Affairs Office by $94,000. Nonsense,” she added.
She said House Bill 22-116 would appropriate $5,373 more to the Carolinian Affairs Office compared to the governor’s proposal.
She added that the governor also claims that “we reduced the Indigenous Affairs budget by $89,000. This is untrue. This office had their budget reduced by $3,494 but this reduction reflects the removal of an unfilled vacancy. We increased their operations budget. The governor fails to mention that his proposal for the Indigenous Affairs budget slashed their budget from $310,001 to just $151,367.”
Rep. Richard Lizama said, “The governor claims that the House leadership allocated $165,000 less to the Veterans Affairs Office. This is false. The governor proposed $286,838. The House bill actually appropriated $297,508. There was no decrease. Period. In fact, we appropriated $10,670 more than what Governor Torres allotted to this important office,” said Lizama, a retired Army veteran.
Rep. Leila Staffler said the governor claims that the House bill cut the CNMI Scholarship Office’s budget by $151,000. “This is false,” she said. The House increased the scholarship office’s budget by a small amount, she added.
“While Governor Torres claims that the House leadership took $79,000 from the Women’s Affairs Office, in reality, the House increased their funding by $5,326. Not only was there no reduction whatsoever, we managed to increase their funding over what Governor Torres proposed,” Staffler said.
Rep. Corina Magofna, the committee’s vice chair, said the governor “is misinforming the people. If he is intentionally lying, then that is unforgiveable. On the other hand, if he is being honest and unintentionally sharing false information, then his incompetence is inexcusable.”
Rep. Celina Babauta said, “The governor states that he is deeply disappointed with the House majority’s decision to cut resources from essential governmental agencies and departments in favor of giving themselves an additional $1.2 million in allocations. There was no increase over our current budget in FY 2022.”
“Unlike the executive branch,” she added, “the Legislature and the Judiciary do not have any access to ARPA funds. What the Legislature appropriated for FY 2023 did not even match the current FY 2022 budget level. In truth we actually cut our budget compared to the current year, so the Governor again totally misconstrues what we did.”
With respect to the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., Staffler said the governor claims that that House reduced CHCC’s subsidy by $973,000. “However, the House actually created two separate funding sources in the form of a sugar sweetened beverage tax and a tobacco tax, which are projected to provide over $3 million in additional revenue that will be allocated…to CHCC. By increasing these taxes for just one year, we hope to raise revenue by taxing these optional items. We cannot legislate a healthy lifestyle, but we can tax cigarettes and soft drinks — things that are not essential,” Staffler said.
Vice Speaker Blas Jonathan Attao said, “The governor fails to mention that he zero funded the retirees’ pension fund in FY 2023. His proposal provided absolutely nothing to the retirees in the FY 2023 budget. In contrast, the House found the money for our retirees. Aside from not identifying funds for the retirees, he also failed to provide funds for most of the CNMI government’s operations, including critical funding to first responders and other health and safety-related agencies.”
Rep. Vicente Camacho said, “Instead of hiring an army of lawyers and giving huge raises to his cabinet, the governor should be cutting expenses and trying to be more fiscally responsible. He is overspending like there is no tomorrow and we know that ARPA will not last forever. That fiscal cliff is coming.”
Rep. Edwin Propst noted that “the FY 2023 appropriations bill was passed by both sides of the House via a unanimous vote of both the House minority and majority. “The budget bill may have been a product of the Ways and Means Committee, but we have to acknowledge the minority leadership who also voted yes — those who voted, all supported the bill. This was not political.”
Without a new and balanced budget law on Oct. 1, 2022 — the start of fiscal year 2023 — there will be a partial government shutdown.
