The Senate in session on Friday.
SADLY, Gov. Arnold I. Palacios did not veto the backpay of Commonwealth Casino Commission members when he signed the revised fiscal year 2025 budget into law, Sen. Celina R. Babauta said on Monday.
During the Senate session on Friday, she urged the governor, who was in the gallery, to line-item veto the $250,000 for the CCC and re-allocate it instead to the Public School System.
She said the Judiciary was “not even a passing thought.” “I further urge the governor to provide additional resources to the Judiciary,” she said.
In a WhatsApp interview, Babauta said “it is difficult to ask the people to continuously sacrifice themselves through austerity when they know that with each passing day, the priorities of elected officials with political agendas are eating away at the very institution that put them in office in the first place.”
She added, “They have every right to be infuriated for having their hours cut in the first place. This budget prioritized the backpay of a defunct casino commission regulating a non-existent casino,” said Babauta, who cast the lone dissenting vote on House Bill 24-6, which is now Public Law 24-1, after the governor signed it on Friday.
The revised budget appropriates $139 million for government personnel and operations in fiscal year 2025. The original budget amount was $117 million.
During the Senate session on Friday, Babauta strongly opposed H.B. 24-6, which, she said, was “presented for first and final reading without proper committee vetting.”
She said that the process “was veiled as a budget deliberation when, in fact, it was conducted in secrecy and bypassed established procedures, is an affront to this body and a disservice to the people we represent.”
Babauta said the amended budget “was negotiated by a mere two individuals, with complete disregard for the input and feedback of the members of their respective committee members [and] is simply unacceptable.”
She asked, “Who were these two individuals? What was their authority to negotiate on behalf of the entire body? Whose interests were they representing during negotiations?”
Babauta said these two individuals — referring to Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider and Rep. Blas Jonathan T. Attao — were able to negotiate the appropriation of $23 million that the governor identified as additional available resources.
“Let me make it perfectly clear, that my no vote to the amended budget is not in opposition to lifting the austerity [measure] to restore government employees to 80 hours,” Babauta said. “It is not in opposition to giving money to the medical referral [program]. It is not in opposition to granting more funds to the municipalities of Rota and Tinian. My no vote represents my opposition to paying the former members of the casino commission, which is not an obligation of the government. It is in opposition to not giving public school students additional funds, as required by our Constitution, or giving it to the CNMI [Scholarship Office] for scholarship awards, since they are experiencing a shortfall,” Babauta added.
She said H.B. 24-6 was not referred to a committee in the House or the Senate.
“The members of the House just expressed concerns about this amended budget in their session [on Friday] morning,” Babauta said. “This rushed process undermines the fundamental principles of transparency and due diligence that should govern budgetary decisions.”
Babauta said her “concerns with this budget extend far beyond the procedural irregularities. Several substantive issues demand our immediate attention and render this budget unacceptable, illegal and unconstitutional in its current form.”
Babauta said that “this budget proposes to allocate funds for the backpay of all the casino commissioners that are clearly not the obligation of the central government. I am deeply troubled that this was the priority of those who negotiated this budget, [which] represents a dangerous expansion of government spending into areas where it has no legitimate purview. It is called revenue diversion, and it is illegal according to federal laws and our own laws. Diverting scarce resources to extraneous projects sets a dangerous precedent and ultimately harms the taxpayers of the CNMI. We will pay more in the long run.”
Babauta said this “expenditure is not only a gross misallocation of taxpayer money, but there is also no legal obligation or requirement for the central government to shoulder this burden at the expense of civil service employees, who have not gotten any merit increases, or at the cost of land compensation claimants, who have had their land taken by the government with impunity. Some land claimants have been waiting for 30 plus years. Many have since died.”
Babauta said “the budget was fundamentally and morally flawed. In light of the external threat and uncertainty PSS is facing with their federal grants, shortchanging students from local resources jeopardizes their future.”
She added, “This budget impacts every family in our district. It affects the quality of education our children receive, the services our community relies on, and the responsible stewardship of our taxpayer dollars.”
“This budget,” she said, “rushed through without proper vetting, riddled with questionable expenditures, and blatantly disregarding constitutional mandates, is unacceptable and should never be tolerated. But, again, as I always will, I will stand alone even when the numbers and votes are against me. This is the people’s mandate of me. We must demand a budget that is fiscally responsible, adheres to the law, and prioritizes the essential needs of our community, especially the education of our children.”
Variety was unable to obtain a comment from the governor, Rep. Attao or Sen. Hofschneider.
