ASG’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2017 goes up by $2 million if the Fono passes legislation that Governor Lolo submitted late Friday afternoon and was introduced in both chambers today.
Governor Lolo has sent to the Fono for endorsement an appropriation of $2 million to be added to the budget.
This money is intended as local match for an award of $7.7 million received from the US Department of Transportation through Secretary Anthony Foxx to finance the relocation of the jet fuel tanks at the airport.
Governor Lolo views the appropriation as an “unexpected blessing” but says his “precarious request” that the money be included in the budget law “could be misconstrued as being unconventional and non-compliant with establsihed budget protocols.”
Introduction of the appropriations measure comes on the last day of the Fono’s joint hearings on the FY2017 budget for ASG,
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Governor Lolo pointed out that failure to present this matter for the Fono’s review and approval would constitute an egregious violation of Title 10 of the American Samoa Code Annotated, and more importantly, it would create an operating fund deficit at the onset of Fiscal Year 2017.
He went on to say that the decision by Transportation Fox to approve the grant money occurred after the submission of the budget to the Fono but with the grant comes a local match requirement which are not included in the Fy2017 financial plan.
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The governor presents details of the USDOT award in a letter to Fono leaders.
The fuel tank relocation project gets $7.7 million and dditional funds from the Federal Aviation Administration for the improvement of our international airport is $13 million.
The total local financial match requirement is $2,000,000 ($770,000 for the Tank Farm Relocation Project and $1.3 million for airport improvement
projects).
This is the amount being requested to be incorporated in the FY 2017 budget raising the total budget threshold by the same amount.
Governor Lolo said that in light of the concerns raised by the Legislature, relative to the advisability of investing bond proceeds for the purchase of the Rapi-Scan, total expected and projected revenues from the Rapi-Scan project were not included in the total revenue forecast documented in the Fiscal Year 2017 budget.
He explains that an estimated $2 million in additional revenues will be generated with the implementation of the scan.
This is the source of local revenues pledged to address the additional expenditure demand resulting from approximately $20 million of FAA funds to for airport projects.
He also pointed out that the government’s investment of $2 million will garner $20 million of federal investment which “clearly benefits the territory significantly.”
