THE Senate on Thursday passed an amended version of a House concurrent resolution to approve over $144 million in revenues and resources available in fiscal year 2022, which starts on Oct. 1, 2021.
Of this amount, about $103 million will be left for government appropriation after deducting debt service payments and Settlement Fund obligations.
House Concurrent Resolution 22-1, House Draft 1, Senate Draft 1 now goes back to the House of Representatives.
In amending the concurrent resolution, the senators removed a provision that would lift the suspension of earmarked funds.
As amended, the resolution identifies $144,848,801 for FY 2022.
The amount of $45,951,500 will be set aside for debt services, leaving $103,384,323 for government appropriation including $4,487,022 for the Department of Public Lands.
The Torres-Palacios administration recently submitted a revised FY 2022 budget proposal that identified roughly $144 million in projected revenue.
This revised budget, however, includes the allocations of $481.87 million allocated to the CNMI through the American Rescue Plan Act in line with the administration’s spending plan that was presented to the CNMI last month.
Of the $481.87 million in ARPA funds, $141.3 million will be spent in fiscal year 2021 and $340.5 million in FY 2022.
The legislative branch will get $2.6 million in ARPA funds as proposed in the revised fiscal year 2022 budget submitted last week by acting Gov. Arnold I. Palacios.
Federal funds will increase each lawmaker’s operating budget to $65,000 from $60,000; restore to 80 the work hours of Legislative Bureau employees; and retrofit the legislative building’s facilities.
