IMPORTANT questions about non-local funds must be resolved before the Legislature can deliberate on the fiscal year 2025 budget, Senate President Edith Deleon Guerrero said.
In an interview on Monday, she said the bicameral conference committee tasked to draft a compromise version of House Bill 23-9 must convene now to address important financial questions regarding non-local funds before they begin the review of the administration’s FY 2025 budget proposal.
The House bill, which was amended by the Senate, would require the Legislature to appropriate all non-locally sourced funds. The House has rejected the Senate version, resulting in the creation of a House-Senate conference committee.
“We should have a general idea about the accounting of these so-called non-locally sourced funds and if they have to be accounted for in the general fund. If so, would such identified funding sources be considered supplemental budget or something else?” Deleon Guerrero asked.
Last week, she wrote Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez a letter, following up on her earlier letter urging the House conferees to meet with their Senate counterparts.
Deleon Guerrero has appointed Senate Floor Leader Corina Magofna to lead the Senate conferees while Villagomez appointed House Ways and Means Committee Chair Ralph N. Yumul as head of the House conferees.
Deleon Guerrero said the conference committee has yet to meet.
For his part, Yumul said their priority right now is the ongoing investigation of the House Special Committee on Federal Assistance & Disaster-Related Funding, which he also chairs, regarding the previous administration’s $17 million Building Optimism, Opportunities and Stability Together or BOOST program in 2022; and the FY 2025 budget.
He said there are also “other important bills” that Ways and Means must address.
