THE House of Representatives on Saturday unanimously passed House Bill 22-116, appropriating $109.7 million in local revenues and $52.6 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for fiscal year 2023 which begins on Oct. 1, 2022.
The bill, which now goes to the Senate, includes a provision that would increase taxes on tobacco and beverages “just for the fiscal year to address the funding source for healthcare particularly medical referrals,” House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Donald Manglona said.
The Democratic candidate for governor, Rep. Tina Sablan, said the tobacco and beverage tax hike is “pursuant to the governor’s request in his budget transmittal letter and also consistent with the recommendations that came out with the Fiscal Response Summit of 2020 and Non-Communicable Disease Summit….”
She said the tax hike collections would be “directed to [the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.] to support operations and improvement in the delivery of healthcare, and for inter-island referral in the health network program as well as preventive services and public health initiatives.”
She said, “Based on the projection from Revenue and Taxation, we are looking at between $5 million and $7 million for CHCC for the fiscal year.”
Sablan said the tax-hike provision “is, I guess, really a streamlined version of what was proposed in the tobacco tax legislation that we passed in the House and now pending in the Senate.”
Including the provision in the budget bill it “gives us the benefit of time to do work on permanent legislation while we assess the impact after a year, and of course generate revenue in the meantime, during this fiscal year for healthcare in the Commonwealth.”
Manglona said they are proposing a “balanced” budget that addresses the retirees’ 25% pension benefit.
He said they also identified available resources to ensure that current employees are fully funded, while providing some operational funding to all departments and agencies.
Like the other members, Rep. Celina Babauta commended Manglona “for his patience and leadership in guiding us through the budget process.”
She added, “Many of you did not know that the members and chairman had to stay here until 2 a.m. these past weeks trying to work on the schedule. It was not an easy task in this budget season given the administration’s decision to zero out the operations for the entire government and we have to look for funding to try to restore… funds for the departments. I want to thank the committee most especially the chairman and the [Legislative Bureau] staff.”
