“I think it will pass — I’m optimistic,” Senate President Pete P. Reyes, R-Saipan, said an interview on Friday.
But Palacios, R-Saipan, believes that Gov. Benigno R. Fitial will, once again, reject the budget bill.
“He doesn’t want to be controlled by spending limits,” the speaker said. “We expect a veto and we will try to override it. We’ve already reduced the budget amount to reflect the administration’s new revenue projections.”
The governor vetoed the original $156 million budget bill, saying that the government expected to collect only $148 million in FY 2009.
The House tried to override the veto, but four Republicans joined the minority in blocking it.
Palacios said the new bill addresses the concerns of those who opposed the override.
“They believed that we could not pass a budget whose amount exceeded the projected revenue — the new bill is based on the revised revenue projection,” he said.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Ray N. Yumul, in a separate interview, said not enacting a new budget is like pouring taxpayer “money into a black hole.”
“The administration overspent $10 million in FY 2008, when we didn’t have a new budget,” said Yumul, R-Saipan. “They have to use [federal] cover-over funds to cover the shortfall. Do you really believe that [the governor] will stay under $148 million in an election year? That’s very doubtful.”
The new budget bill, H.B. 16-213, does not include the austerity Fridays and unpaid holidays proposed by the governor, and it will not provide him with unlimited reprogramming authority. Moreover, the bill restricts the governor’s authority to hire new personnel.
