SINCE it became a city in 2001, Talisay will have its biggest budget next year, totaling over P437.6 million.

A 22 percent increase has been proposed in Mandaue’s annual budget next year. The opposition called attention to a 25.8 percent increase in the allocation to pay job-order workers.

Since it will be an election next year, Mandaue City Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna sees the possibility of hiring more job-order and program workers in addition to the existing 2,000 job workers of the city.

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“That is the obvious purpose,” he told Sun.Star, referring to the additional budget.

There is “not much difference” between Cebu City’s annual budget for 2010 and that of this year, said City Councilor Jose Daluz III, council budget and finance committee chairman.

He said the major difference is the inclusion of P50 million as cash assistance of P4,000 each to the city’s senior citizens.

A comparison, though, also showed that the 2010 budget is bigger, with P2.656 billion for the general fund proper and P539.083 billion for the special fund.

The annual budget for 2009 is P2.485 billion for the general fund and P457.899 billion for the special account.

Higher

Talisay’s budget proposal is higher by P60 million than this year’s budget of P377.3, an increase of 16 percent, said Councilor Arturo Bas.

It will be tackled during the City Council’s regular session on Tuesday.

Bas, council appropriations and finance committee chairman, said that if this year’s three supplemental budgets are factored in, the City’s total allocations go up by more than P16 million.

Talisay’s 20 percent Local Development Fund will pay for the maintenance of roads and bridges, construction of school buildings and acquisition of lots for the urban poor resettlement program, said Bas.

Based on his computation, Bas said the mayor’s office will get about P13 million as its confidential intelligence fund.

Bas said that P57.8 million is also earmarked for infrastructure projects and P14 million for acquisition of road right-of-way and lots for the local shelter program.

Talisay City’s Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share reached P257 million this year, from last year’s P226 million.

Cebu City

Meanwhile, since Cebu City is adopting Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s “skin and bones budget,” the City is just reenacting the recurring expenses, said Daluz.

Added together, however, Cebu City’s 2010 annual budget amounts to P3.196 billion.

But the expenditure program by sector proposed by the executive department showed that allocations are lower for 2010.

The City will spend P1.057 billion for general public services for 2010, which is 18.73 percent lower than this year’s P1.3 million.

For social services, the proposed budget is P524.99 million, which is also lower than this year’s P536.03 million.

The budget for the Cebu City Medical Center, the Bonbon Emergency Hospital, and the Guba Emergency Hospital, though, is higher at P163.976 million compared to this year’s P149.498 million.

The second biggest budget for 2010 is debt servicing at P576.13 million; but it is lower by 14.76 percent compared to this year’s allocation of P676.87 million.

The budget for the LDF is also lower, with P193.71 million compared to P373.22 million for 2009, or a difference of P179.51 million (P48.1 percent).

The City, however, can make adjustments as the months pass by approving supplemental budgets, which this year totaled P1.6 billion—aside from the P2.9 billion annual budget.

Except for a new one, the executive department also adopted the fiscal policies it implemented this year.

The new policy is for the “decentralization of tax collection by creating several revenue districts in various strategic places in the city.”

The P15-million budget for the 21 barangay-based collection districts was included in the seventh supplemental appropriation the council approved last Oct. 7.

Mandaue City

In Mandaue, Mayor Jonas Cortes’s proposed annual budget next year is P894,831,778.75 or 22.40 percent higher than this year’s P731.061 million.

This year’s budget, for example, includes P56.5 million for “other programs and projects,” where the salaries of temporary workers are usually drawn from. the proposed amount for 2010 is P14.10 million larger.

One of the mayor’s advisers, Atty. Francisco Amit, said the vice mayor should not speculate, since the council has more than two months to scrutinize the proposed budget.

If the mayor proposes a lean budget they will criticize him for having only a few projects. And if the mayor proposes a bigger budget, they may accuse him of politicking, Amit said.

They should look instead, Amit said, into how the money is being spent.

Legislators will start conducting budget hearings and will call all department heads. Fortuna said they will look at each department’s work and expenditures this year, then their proposed budget in relation to their performance. (GC/RHM/OCP)

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on November 15, 2009.