While I share the same concerns as yours, we cannot turn a blind eye on the fact that our commonwealth has been experiencing a decline in revenue for some time now and can no longer sustain the activities and employees it has without much needed austerity measures. In an effort to retain as many employees as possible, my budget submission included a 16 hour bi-weekly reduction in work hours.”
Some officials have admitted that the government may not be able to collect the $132 million projected revenue for fiscal year 2011. They are already worried about the budget deliberations next year if the economy continues to get worse.
Press Secretary Angel A. Demapan, in an interview, said the governor decided to make today’s Commonwealth Cultural Day a paid holiday so that government employees can “recover” a portion of the hours they lost during the shutdown.
Fitial said there are provisions in the budget bill that require “further legislative attention.”
“While I am approving this measure into law, I am compelled to address several sections which may be problematic in its implementation or in its fairness to other activities of the government,” Fitial said.
The provision that requires him to get the Legislature’s approval in reducing appropriated funds is “irresponsible, lacks logic and perpetuates deficit spending.”
“If the secretary of Finance reports that projected resources are decreasing, it would be distressing that the reduction in expenditure may be made only with legislative approval,” Fitial said.
He said his reprogramming authority, if exercised, will benefit only the activities within the executive branch because it requires the approval of the Legislature to reprogram other funds.
He said this restriction is “wholly unreasonable” as it deprives activities outside the executive branch the benefit of much needed reprogrammable funds.
The funds to pay the utilities of the branches, departments, and agencies of the CNMI government, Fitial also noted, amounted to over $1.5 million less than his submission.
The Legislature, he said, should address this shortfall to ensure utility service without interruption.
If not addressed immediately, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. will be in the same predicament as in the past fiscal year and will force the government to scramble for funds again, he added.
The hiring restriction, Fitial said, is problematic because it fails to state whether the legislative approval must come in the form of a resolution or a public law.
He said if the Legislature does not act expeditiously on a request to hire, there may be detrimental effects in filling health care, safety and welfare positions.
He said the legal holiday payments for FY 2011 should have been suspended only instead of being repealed as provided by the budget bill.
The Legislature, he said, “must be conscientious of this abolishment and restore the legal holiday payments in the following fiscal years.”
Fitial said authorizing him to “select one or more holidays for employees to receive leave with pay does not immediately impact the funds, but it could potentially increase costs, thereby defeating the non-paid holiday restriction.”
The governor said although the judicial branch’s appropriation was increased by $350,000 such language was not included in this measure.
But he said he is confident the judiciary will allocate the fund for its purpose.
According to the governor, adding 17 full-time employees for Tinian increased the funding by almost half a million dollars.
This, he said, is “troubling as one of the main focuses of the budget impasse was the work-hour reduction and the ability to support the number of current employees at the projected resources for this fiscal year.”
It is ironic, he added, “that while other departments, agencies, instrumentalities, branches, and programs need to absorb deep cuts, Tinian will have equal funding level as that of Rota.”
$3.3 million was appropriated for the judicial branch.
Each lawmaker will get $85,000 in discretionary funds. The House and the Senate leaderships got $138,000 each while the Legislative Bureau will receive $1.4 million.
The office of the governor will get $59.3 million; Rota and Tinian, $6.2 million each; Saipan, $1.1 million; and the Northern Islands, $279,565.
Northern Marianas College will receive $4.4 million; the Public School System, $31.1 million; the Board of Education, $164,000 and the Marianas Visitors Authority, $2.6 million with additional $360,000 for its Rota and Tinian operations.
