November 5, 2008 8:44 am by pna
URDANETA CITY, Nov. 5 (PNA — Anticipating that the financial crisis might get worse next year, the city government has reduced its budget for 2009 by some P20 million.
City Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. explained that the P517 million approved budget of the city for next year is a very conservative budget and could easily be realized.
The approved budget for next year is some P20 million lower than the 2008 city budget of P537 million, he said.
Perez, said at least P10 million from the slashed amount came from the budget of the city-run University of Urdaneta City and the other P10 million from various departments of the city government.
The city anticipated slight decrease in enrollment next year in the city-run university because of the expected harder times owing to the global financial crisis.
Officials who deliberated on the executive budget submitted by Perez foresee that the economy will not yet be too good next year, thus the city might suffer a shortfall in its collection of taxes.
“We do not want to resort to deficit spending, that was why we pegged the estimated income at a more conservative level, Perez said.
He added that it is better that the city would exceed its income over its approved budget next year than to incur deficit spending.
At the same time, Perez admitted that the share of the city from the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) this year decreased by around P7 million.
He said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) informed the city it would get P214 million as its share from the IRA, but in the middle of 2008, informed the city that there was a cut in the city’s IRA share by P7 million, thus only P207 million was received.
The city did not suffer much from the P7 million cut from the city’s IRA share because it based its estimate on the IRA share of the city from the 2007 level, which was only P207 million.
The mayor hinted the continuing decrease in the IRA of the city and those of other cities in the country may have something to do with the creation of new cities.
For 2009, the city pegged the estimated share of the city from the IRA to only P207, same as this year, so deficit can be avoided, he added.(PNA)
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