THE House of Representatives on Tuesday unanimously rejected the Senate version of House Bill 22-91 which proposes to give Gov. Ralph DLG Torres 100% reprogramming authority so retirees each receive a $1,000 bonus.
The House and the Senate will now convene a bicameral conference committee to draft a bill acceptable to both chambers.
The governor originally proposed the retirees bonus in December, a few weeks before Christmas. The Senate then adopted a joint resolution authorizing the governor to reprogram $1.3 million from the general fund for the payment of $500 bonuses to each retiree.
The House, however, did not act on Senate Joint Resolution 22-5, but instead passed House Bill 22-91 on Jan. 12, 2022.
The bill would reappropriate the funds that the governor line-item vetoed when he signed the fiscal year 2022 budget measure into law.
The Senate, for its part, amended the House bill to increase the bonuses for government retirees from $500 to $1,000 each.
As amended by the Senate, the bill would give the governor 100% reprogramming authority over the appropriated funds for the executive branch. The secretary of Finance, for his part, “shall provide a report within 30 days of any reprogramming of funds authorized under this subsection.”
After the House rejected the Senate version of H.B. 22-91 on Tuesday, Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez appointed the bill’s author, Rep. Donald Manglona, Vice Speaker Blas Jonathan Attao and Rep. Corina Magofna as the House conferees. The Senate will appoint its own representatives to the bicameral conference committee.
In her remarks, the Democratic Party’s candidate for governor, Rep. Tina Sablan, said the “problem” is not the retirees’ bonus, but the proposal to give the Republican governor 100% reprogramming authority.
She also accused the governor of “once again using and manipulating the retirees to serve his own political ends”
She said the governor “wants unlimited power over the public purse after running deficits for six straight years; after we just impeached him for misspending public funds and abusing public trust; six articles of impeachment, colleagues, for corruption, commission of felony and neglect of duty after we reviewed and exposed thousands upon thousands of pages of government records documenting illegal travel, theft, extravagant reimbursements, 85 boating trips on public safety resources, utilities at two private residences plus water for a commercial piggery — after we have just learned about more lucrative sole-source contracts that this administration has awarded, weekly Zoom conferences, an app that no one seems to know about and a ridiculous amount for a single company to sanitize public buildings — after we have just learned about the outrageous fees that taxpayers are paying for the governor’s army of attorneys to fight the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations investigation and his impeachment.”
Sablan said the governor “cannot be trusted with public funds but he will try to take more control anyway.”
Retirees, she added, “are not political pawns. They should never be used as political pawns. Colleagues, where is the logic in giving this governor more power over public funds? Where is the justice in that? There is none. It would defy common sense and conscience to do so.”
Sablan said in her message to the governor: “Cut the ‘politricks,’ stop using the retirees, stop using the Senate. Live within your means. Respect the reprogramming authority that the law already gives you. Let us give the retirees the bonus they have been waiting for and let’s do this right way. No riders, no games, no 100% reprogramming power, no more politricks.”
Sablan said, “Let’s also help everyone else who needs help. Expand the premium pay to the public sector and private sector workers who have been excluded so far, issue the new local stimulus to the thousands of qualified taxpayers and dependents who really need this help.”
Sablan said the governor “can do it right now. He is the expenditure authority for American Rescue Plan Act funds, and these are allowable uses. What is he waiting for?”
Deficit spending
Another Democrat House member, Edwin Propst, said every single fiscal year under Torres administration, the CNMI government has ended in deficit spending, “even in a year of super robust economy in the history of the Commonwealth as Governor Torres and his beneficiaries so proudly proclaimed.”
Propst said the CNMI government incurred the following deficits”
FY 2016 — $16,279,801
FY 2017 — $8,044,194
FY2018 — $25,910,717
FY 2019 — $88,777,254
FY 2020 — $133,000,000
FY2021 — $42,600,000
The total deficit under the Torres administration in six years is $314,611,966, Propst said. “This is a lot of money,” he added.
The administration earlier said the primary causes of the government deficit were public safety and disaster response expenditures as well as medical referrals.
Propst said the governor “continues to blame everything and everyone except himself. Because it is never ever his fault even when it clearly is. He is the only governor who illegally flew first class on the taxpayers’ dime, every single time he traveled as governor. He is the only governor who ran a huge commercial piggery on his personal property and had taxpayers pay for it. He is the only governor who ran utility bills in one month as high as $18,000 charged to taxpayers. He is the only governor who has his house and office raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”
Propst also accused the governor of “enriching” his beneficiaries who in turn donated to his reelection campaign.
“We wholeheartedly support giving retirees their bonus, but we don’t and cannot give Torres 100% reprogramming authority especially after we just impeached him for his corrupt deeds and abuse of power and fraud. Governor Torres continues to misuse and abuse taxpayers dollars. We cannot embolden him by giving him 100% reprogramming power.”
