THE municipality of Tinian will “grind to a halt” if the House version of fiscal year 2024 budget measure becomes law, Tinian Mayor Edwin P. Aldan told members of the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee, which conducted a budget hearing at the Tinian courthouse on Thursday.
Present in the budget hearing were the committee chairman, Senate Vice President Donald M. Manglona; the vice chair, Senate Floor Leader Corina L. Magofna; and members, Sens. Karl King-Nabors, Jude U. Hofschneider and Dennis Mendiola.
The Tinian leadership requested a $10,754,440 budget for FY 2024 but the House version of House Bill 23-66 or the FY 2024 Appropriations Act allots only $4,722,210 for Tinian while taking into account the $2.7 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds that the former Torres administration wired to the Tinian Treasury last year.
Manglona noted that based on Tinian’s proposed budget, the mayor is requesting $3 million to fund his office personnel.
“I hope that the mayor had an opportunity to review the House version of the budget. And today, he can use his time to share his concerns as well as the use of the ARPA funds last fiscal year, and how much of those are…available for the next fiscal year,” Manglona said.
Aldan said his office has 124 employees, but the House version of the FY 2024 budget would fund only 28 employees, which means 96 will be out of jobs.
The mayor said if the Legislature is unable to reinstate funding for all of his employees in the next fiscal year, “the Tinian municipality will essentially grind to a halt.”
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https://www.mvariety.com/news/tinian-will-grind-to-a-halt/article_77435302-3ccd-11ee-a854-c7088375553f.html
