BACOLOD City – Councilors are letting the celebratory mood brought by the MassKara Festival pass before they discuss the P2.52-billion proposed city government budget for 2019.
The Sangguniang Panlungsod committee on finance and appropriations will hold a series of budget hearings after the festival, said Councilor Caesar Distrito, committee chairman.
The proposed budget for next year is P270 million (12 percent) higher than this year’s P2.25 billion.
Department heads are attending the hearings to defend the proposed budgets of their respective offices. They must attend as scheduled, said Distrito.
Before any discussions the city council would ask them first about, among others, unimplemented projects supposedly covered by this year’s budget, if any, he added.
Offices that usually have the biggest budgets are the City Mayor’s Office, the City Engineering Office and the Bacolod City College, Distrito said.
It was not immediately clear as of this writing how much the proposed budgets of these offices are for next year.
According to Distrito, half of the 2019 budget will be sourced from the Internal Revenue Allotment (P1.26 billion) while the other half will be from local revenue sources (P1.258 billion).
Moreover, the 2019 budget will cover the salary increase of city government employees.
Getting a huge chunk of the allocation is the maintenance and other operating expenses (52.92 percent, or P1.33 billion).
Personnel services gets 26.21 percent, or P660 million; development fund, P252 million; equipment expenses, P81.7 million; financial expenses, P7.9 million; and others, P184 million./PN
