KHJ News has made attempts to get comments from Governor Pulaalii Nikolao Pula regarding the Legislature’s move to ban his Chief of Staff from the Fono, to take his administration to court and the Senate’s disapproval of board members.
The Governor has not responded to our questions.
His first public comments regarding some of the issues raised were made at the Medicaid Summit earlier this week.
The Governor spoke about the compilation of the Fiscal Year 2026 budget wherein the local portion of the budget was reduced from $166 million to $141 million after seeing that local revenues were not at the level of previous years.
He said during the budget hearings no questions were asked about why the Governor had redcued the local revenue portion of the budget.
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The Governor recalled that the approved budget bill was delivered to him at 3:30 pm on September 30 and the deadline for him to act on the budget was midnight. The Fono cut the salaries of all directors of the line agencies under the Governor’s Office, he explained.
Pulaali’i said that he did not have enough time to negotiate with the Fono regarding the directors’ salaries. He wrote to the Fono that he would use his constitutional right as governor to spend the money that was cut for salaries because he believed it was his right and responsibility.
The Governor also spoke about the Fono’s move to take him to court.
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