BAGUIO CITY – The city council last Wednesday approved the city’s 2016 budget amounting to P1,622,910,000 along with the 2016 budget and the Annual Investment Plan (AIP) listing the city’s priority projects.
The approved budget is higher by P121,400,000 than last year’s approved financial plan pegged at P1,501,510,000.
The income component is broken down as follows: personal services – P605,875,000; maintenance and operating expenditures – P523,606,000; capital outlay – P129,143,000; non-office expenditures – P90,990,000; disaster risk reduction management fund – P72,946,000; and development fund – P196,350,000.
The expenditure is distributed as follows: beginning balance – P160,000,000; tax revenue – P385,900,000; non-tax revenue – P223,010,000 and external sources – P850,000,000.
The approved amount includes the P4 million for the city’s hosting of the Cordillera Administration Region Athletic Association (CARAA) meet this February.
The AIP which lists the major and barangay projects of the city has a total allocation of P196,350,000.
The major development projects identified under the AIP are the second phase of the development of the Integrated Solid Waste Disposal site covering the two-hectare engineered sanitary landfill, land development, access road and weigh bridge at Sto. Tomas Central with a total amount of P50 million and the partial rehabilitation of the Baguio Convention Center with a total cost of P40 million.
Other major projects listed were the various barangay development projects with a total cost of P28 million, rehabilitation and preservation of the Asin minihydro, P25 million; construction, installation or repair of traffic facilities, P12 million; parks improvement P10 million; continuation of City Hall improvement, P8 million; and continuation of improvement of swimming pool and facilities, P7 million.
In his budget message, Mayor Mauricio Domogan said the budget is geared at sustaining the city’s thrusts on maintaining the integrity of the environments, sustained economic growth, poverty reduction and empowerment of the poor, accountable and participatory governance and safe and resilient city.
“We have set our thrust early in my first term and our budgets have always been geared towards continuity and sustainability of programs that address the priorities defined in our plans,” he said.
“Our fiscal policies as pronounced in our budget call abides by the good financial housekeeping component of the seal of food local governance of the Department of Interior and Local Government by adopting the bottom-up budgeting in the allocation of resources to address poverty issues,”
“We have engaged the civil society organizations in every step of local governance to ensure that the needs of the community are addressed in this budget proposal. To optimize the use of our limited resources, austerity measures are established yet we will not sacrifice efficient and effective urban public service delivery,” the mayor said. /A. Refuerzo
