THE Senate on Thursday passed its version of the budget measure for fiscal year 2022.
House Bill 22-74, House Draft 3, Senate Draft 1, now returns to the House of Representatives. If the House rejects the Senate amendments, a bicameral conference committee will be convened to draft a budget bill acceptable to both chambers.
Without a new and balanced budget on Oct. 1, 2021 — the first day of FY 2022 — there will be a partial government shutdown.
On Thursday, Sen. Paul A. Manglona, a member of the minority bloc, was excused from the Senate session. All eight members present unanimously voted for the bill’s passage.
Authored by House Ways and Means Chairman Donald Manglona, H.B. 22-74 identifies $144.8 million in local revenue, $103.3 million of which is available for government appropriation including $4.4 million for the Department of Public Lands.
When it was passed by the House on Aug. 3, House members attached a spreadsheet that indicates the American Rescue Plan Act monies that will fill the funding gaps in local appropriation for certain government agencies and operations.
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres also submitted a spending plan for the $175 million in ARPA funds for FY 2022.
The local revenue projection and ARPA funding amount to $278.3 million in FY 2022.
Sen. Victor B. Hocog, who chairs the Senate Committee on Fiscal Affairs, said they adopted most of the House version of the bill.
But he said there was some duplicated or redundant language that his committee struck out.
“We have made some changes, not substantial changes, but changes that will explicitly define the proper language in the section that the committee saw was necessary to amend or to delete,” he added.
Senate Vice President Justo S. Quitugua, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, and Welfare, discussed portions of the budget bill pertaining to the Commonwealth Medicaid Agency.
He said there are certain provisions that need to be clarified, as requested by the committee’s House counterpart, in order to properly designate personnel as either a civil service or contract worker.
“[These provisions] will make it easier for the transfer of these employees to the current status [provided by] law,” Quitugua said.
Sen. Edith Deleon Guerrero, the other minority bloc member, questioned whether the list of independent programs was an “exhaustive list” to which the Senate legal counsel replied that it only listed programs that were to receive a budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
Deleon Guerrero noted that certain independent programs that were previously funded under the FY 2021 budget bill were struck out. She wanted to know what qualifies programs to receive funding while others do not.
Senator Hocog said the Senate Committee on Fiscal Affairs had seriously considered whether certain entities should continue to receive funding.
“We had not seen even a report or anything…as to what they’re undertaking [to do]. So, if there’s nothing coming out from this entity as to whether they are moving forward or we’re just appropriating money for their own operations without any report as to where are they [headed] to, then I don’t think it is wise that we continue [to fund] an agency or an institution…and that’s one of the reasons the committee decided that maybe we can defund them this year….,” he said.
Senate Vice President Quitugua added, “Most of them are not funded… but they remain as sort of a template… because we don’t know if in the next fiscal year, they will be funded or not. They can be taken out, but every year, they appear because once upon a time, they were funded, and now they continue to appear, but for some of these [programs], for several fiscal years, they were not funded, but they still appear [on the budget bill] with zero funds.”
Variety was unable to obtain a list of these unfunded programs.
Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider, for his part, extended his appreciation to the members of the Senate Committee on Fiscal Affairs for doing their due diligence in reviewing the budget bill.
“It is always our wish that we… have the confidence that the [bill] that we are about to [pass] is…well-put-together and a well-thought-out plan. A lot of the provisions that were embedded in [the House bill] were also considered and were not removed…. I hope that we can move forward with [the budget bill] more smoothly this year. As everyone knows, we have lots of infusion of [federal] funds for our Commonwealth to function as we get through this…pandemic….,” he added
Victor B. Hocog
