HE doesn’t want to go there, but Tinian Mayor Edwin P. Aldan told lawmakers on Monday, “you’ll leave me no choice,” but to bring the central government to court if the Legislature will approve Gov. Arnold I. Palacios’ proposal to cut Tinian’s budget by $2.7 million in fiscal year 2024.
In his remarks during a budget hearing at the Tinian courthouse, the mayor told the House Ways and Means Committee that he understands that the administration is going through a lot of financial problems.
But he said there should be fairness for everybody.
“As you know, Tinian is the only municipality that was singly deprived of the general fund and being mandated to use American Rescue Plan Act funds,” Aldan said.
“I think that in itself is borderline frustrating [for] the municipality and there are [similar] legal issues [in the past] that [were brought to] court,” he added. “We don’t want to go there. I seriously don’t want to go there. But if my hands are tied and our people are struggling then you’ll leave me no choice.”
In his FY 2024 budget submission, Governor Palacios proposed $4.6 million for Tinian, which is $2.7 million less than Tinian’s revised FY 2023 budget of $7.3 million.
The governor reduced the proposed budget of the Tinian Mayor’s Office to $111,000 from $2.7 million.
Aldan said last year, then-Gov. Ralph DLG Torres provided Tinian $3.6 million in ARPA funds.
The mayor said Palacios now “intends to include $3 million of ARPA funds currently held in the Tinian Municipal Treasury to cover the difference.”
But as he had already explained to Gov. Palacios, the Tinian mayor said, “these funds will not be available on Oct. 1, 2023 [the beginning of new fiscal year] as most of the funds had already been allocated.”
“In fact, as of today, we don’t even have a cash balance of $3 million as we have been using these funds for local payroll and operations since the passage of the revised FY 2023 budget,” Aldan said.
The governor’s proposal provides the Tinian Mayor’s Office a budget for only one position, “my position,” the mayor said.
Since his office has a total of 125 personnel including himself, Aldan said the governor’s FY 2024 budget proposal is like terminating the other 124 employees of the Tinian Mayor’s Office.
“Without…124 full-time employees or FTEs, the Tinian municipality will essentially grind to a halt as we not only oversee all the [CNMI] departments on Tinian but we also coordinate with all autonomous agencies on municipal matters,” Aldan said.
He said the Tinian Mayor’s Office is “responsible for operating the library, the youth center, the dog control division, the ID division, the ground maintenance of nearly all parks and tourist sites, building repairs, new project planning, municipal scholarship, the slaughterhouse, the municipal treasury, emergency preparedness, grant writing and management, the Saipan guest house, military liaison, and planning and budget.”
Moreover, he said his office assists every CNMI department and agency including the Public School System, the Marianas Visitors Authority and Tinian Health Center by, among other things, providing personnel through a memorandum of understanding.
View the full Marianas Variety here:
https://www.mvariety.com/news/tinian-mayor-may-sue-government/article_433633de-1f24-11ee-bf67-a38330923d27.html
