Senate President Edith Deleon Guerrero speaks during a Senate session.
SENATE President Edith Deleon Guerrero has reached out to Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez regarding Senate Joint Resolution 23-2, which urges Gov. Arnold I. Palacios to task the Division of Revenue and Taxation with collecting unpaid gross revenue taxes owed to the government.
Unanimously adopted by the Senate in February, S.J.R. 23-2, which Deleon Guerrero authored, is still with the House Committee on Ways and Means.
The Senate president is hoping that the joint resolution passes the House soon, “so that collection efforts can move forward.”
Deleon Guerrero also noted that Finance Secretary Tracy B. Norita informed the Legislature earlier this year about an audit conducted by the Division of Revenue and Taxation on the business gross revenue taxes of Nutrition Assistance Program retailers.
According to S.J.R. 23-2, the audit report from 2018 to 2021 indicated that over $24 million of NAP gross revenue was “unreported.”
Deleon Guerrero said this information from the Finance secretary prompted her to introduce S.J.R. 23-2, which states that the fiscal response team formed by the governor “is collecting all information and data as to what funds are available and will make an accurate projection so that the CNMI can have a balanced budget.”
With the financial crisis the CNMI government is facing, the joint resolution stated, “it is highly critical that strict, timely collections of all revenues be enforced.”
The governor’s fiscal response team is composed of the Department of Finance, the Office of Management and Budget, the Public Assistance Office and the CNMI Homeland Security and Emergency Management Office.
Norita said these agencies are still “reconciling” the numbers pertaining to the CNMI’s expenditures of American Rescue Plan Act funds and ARPA-related projects.
