THE House of Representatives will reject the Senate version of the fiscal year 2022 budget measure. The new fiscal year starts on Oct. 1, 2021. Without a new balanced budget on or before that date, there will be a partial government shutdown.
The House Committee on Ways and Means chairman, Donald Manglona, said they have “concerns” with the Senate amendments, including “the adjustment in salaries for cabinet members.”
The House will convene at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, Aug. 31.
Authored by Manglona and based on the governor’s budget submission, the House budget bill or H.B. 22-74 proposes to appropriate for government operations $103.3 million of the $144.8 million in projected local revenue for FY 2022. The rest of the amount is for the government’s debts and other obligations, including $39 million in federal-court-mandated payment to the Settlement Fund.
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres also submitted to lawmakers his spending plan for $175 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds which will provide the CNMI government a total of $278.3 million in FY 2022.
Manglona said the Senate added the following provision to H.B. 22-74: “The Legislature concurs with the governor’s use of ARPA funds, as provided in Volume 4 of the governor’s annual budget submission of April 2021 as amended in July 2021, and the American Rescue Plan Act, to fund salary adjustments for government employees for FY 2022.”
Manglona said they are also not happy with the Senate’s removal of the provision that would prohibit the governor from making changes to outside-sourced funds without legislative consent.
In addition, he said the Senate struck out the provision that would require compliance with local and federal laws for “any payment funded directly or indirectly by federal or local funds, made in excess of base salaries to include but not limited to overtime, supplemental time, premium pay, extra pay or other such payments.”
In a separate interview, Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez said he anticipates the creation of a bicameral conference committee to draft a final version of the budget that is acceptable to both houses.
Aside from Manglona, the House conferees will be Reps. Tina Sablan, John Paul Sablan and Leila Staffler.
Villagomez said the House leadership is mindful that a balanced budget must be enacted by Oct. 1 to avoid a partial government shutdown.
Noting that the deadline is just one month away, the speaker said the House would also like to give the governor ample time to review the budget bill. So it is his hope that the conference committee would come up with a final version by Sept. 10 or 11.
Donald Manglona
