Tinian Rep. Patrick San Nicolas confers with Saipan Reps. John Paul Sablan and Joseph Flores during a House Ways and Means Committee meeting on Monday.
THE House Ways and Means Committee will ask Tinian Mayor Edwin P. Aldan to provide more information pertaining to the municipal government’s financial records.
The committee earlier asked Tinian Municipal Treasurer Barbara Borja about Tinian’s fund accounts including, but not limited to, local funds, special accounts, tribunal funds, professional services, American Rescue Plan Act funds, revolving funds or any account to which the Tinian Municipal Treasury and the Tinian Mayor’s Office had access or expenditure authority over the time period of January 2021 to the present.
In a meeting on Monday, the committee had a lengthy discussion about Tinian’s budget proposal and Gov. Arnold I. Palacios’ fiscal year 2023 budget submission for the island.
The governor has proposed $4.6 million for Tinian which does not include local funds for the mayor’s office.
Aldan told the committee that 124 of his employees would lose their jobs if the Legislature approves the governor’s proposed budget for Tinian.
The governor, in his budget submission, took into account the remaining $2.7 million of the $3.6 million in ARPA money that Tinian received from the central government last year. But Aldan said he had already allocated those funds, including $840,000 for the Tinian Mayor’s Office payroll in FY 2024.
Aldan asked the committee to fund the payroll of the 124 Tinian Mayor’s Office employees, and provide at least $800,000 for operations.
Tinian Rep. Patrick San Nicolas told his colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee that the governor’s proposed budget for Tinian is not sufficient.
On Monday, the committee chairman, Rep. Ralph N. Yumul of Saipan, acknowledged the Tinian budget information provided by San Nicolas. However, Yumul said, “we will request more information from the [Tinian] mayor.”
The committee’s vice chairman, Rep. Blas Jonathan Attao of Saipan, noted that in addition to the ARPA funds that Tinian received from the previous administration, the municipality also received funds from the Tinian Legislative Delegation for the Tinian Mayor’s Office payroll, and the Tinian mayor himself has been allotted a budget from the FY 2024 general fund.
