He said the enactment of the appropriation measure or Public Law 17-55 meant that for the first time, the government will have a new budget in two consecutive fiscal years.
But the most important thing about signing the budget is that it eased the minds of government employees who had been worrying about another partial shutdown like what happened last year, Inos said.
In his transmittal message to Senate President Paul A. Manglona, Ind.-Rota, and Speaker Eli D. Cabrera, R-Saipan, Inos said instead of prioritizing the budget as soon as the governor submitted his proposal last April 1, the Legislature “waited until the 11th hour.”
This, he said, forced the administration to approve a bill which could have been drafted with more care, precision, and fairness.
“Still, the administration is relieved that our government employees will not have to endure the angst experienced last year during the shutdown period,” Inos said.
It worked
Painful as it was, last year’s eight-day partial shutdown, which was the first in CNMI history, must have given everybody a lesson, said former House Minority Leader Diego T. Benavente in a separate interview.
He was the author of the legislative initiative that required a government shutdown if no budget is enacted by Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year. This legislative initiative was ratified by CNMI voters in 2009.
Benavente said this year’s early enactment of the budget showed that his initiative is starting to serve its purpose.
He said in the past, the government kept appropriating the same budget every fiscal year despite the declining revenues.
That was not a good thing to do, he said, as it created a “massive deficit.”
He said the government would have continued appropriating funds beyond its projected resources. “The government needs to live within it means or else we will create bigger problems,” he added.
Rep. Ramon S. Basa, who chaired the bicameral conference committee that finalized the budget bill, said: “It is just a good feeling to know that this bill has been signed by the acting governor.”
The people’s worry and anxiety, “are laid to rest,” said Basa, Covenant-Saipan.
“We don’t have to worry about a shutdown. I’m just extremely happy,” he added.
Now, he said, “we must try to push those revenue-generating bills that are pending in the Legislature. Our top priority now is to really put our effort in looking for new monies to come into our economy so that will be our focus,” said the chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means.
For his part, House Minority Leader Joseph P. Deleon Guerrero, R-Saipan, said “the tension and the fear of government shutdown is now over.”
He said he is relieved that both houses put their differences aside and worked together with the administration.
“It just came to show that it can happen,” he added.
Speaker Cabrera said he and the rest of the House members are happy that Inos joined the budget panel in finalizing the measure.
Overtime
Press Secretary Angel A. Demapan said Inos and other key administration officials worked all day and night in reviewing the budget bill.
“We reviewed that bill all day Saturday and all day Sunday and through the night to make sure that it was a bill we could sign into law,” he said.
As soon as the conference committee report recommending the passage of the budget passed the House and the Senate in back-to-back sessions on late Friday afternoon, the measure was transmitted right away to the administration office, Demapan said.
Although there are concerns, Demapan said the “ultimate goal of the administration is to avert a government shutdown.”
He added, “We understand the concerns of the people especially the government employees and their families and the struggle we went through last year was definitely something we did not want to repeat this year.”
Inos for his part said when he saw the draft bill for the first time, “we did a lot of work in the conference committee and we cleaned it up.”
“We’re happy with what they did although we could have done more. But time was of the essence as they had to move the budget over and we had to act on it as we did this morning signing it into law,” he said.
Concerns
The 29 percent increase in the funding for the Legislature, which amounts to $1.2 million, Inos said, “exempts the Legislative Bureau from any austerity work hours that will be borne by other government departments and agencies.”
There was also “no discussion or justification” in the increase of funding for Rota — $50,000 for the mayor’s office; $10,000 for the municipal council; and $10,000 for the island’s Department of Public Safety, Inos said.
There was also no justification for raising the budget for Tinian, he added.
The governor’s submission, Inos said, included funds for the Tinian municipal council so the $56,622 increase in its funding “is puzzling.”
The 56 percent decrease in funding for the Marianas Visitors Authority, Inos said, “is alarming” because MVA provides services for the CNMI’s only industry: tourism.
“This is serious problem for MVA as they continue to counter the decline in tourism industry. It was the understanding of the administration that the Senate would pass House Bill 17-179 simultaneously with this appropriation act to supplement MVA’s budget,” Inos said.
Introduced by House Floor Leader George N. Camacho, Ind.-Saipan, H.B. 17-179 imposes a $15 travel fee on carriers for every passenger arriving from origins other than the U.S.
MVA Managing Director Perry Tenorio, who had yet to see the new budget, said it was also his understanding that the reduction of the MVA budget was supposed to be made up with the revenue from travel fees.
Inos said, “These concerns are not insurmountable issues. They can be worked out but we all pledged that maybe on FY 2013 budget we can work closer together giving anyone enough time to review the issues so that we can come up with one common solution.”
