Port board approves $37M budget
Already more than a week into the new fiscal year, the Port Authority board of directors officially approved its FY2014 budget.
By KUAM NewsGuam - Already more than a week into the new fiscal year, the Port Authority board of directors officially approved its FY2014 budget. Late last month the board approved an interim budget which was a continuation of the FY2013 budget as several concerns still needed to be addressed.
Vice chairwoman Christine Baleto says the $37 million budget is about a $1.7 million increase from last years. "But a lot of those increases are in maintenance and facility as well as occupational, health and safety so it's having to account for of course the increased maintenance with the crane. I'm happy to see with this year's budget that there's a lot of investment in the infrastructure so we got a lot of facility maintenance projects going on," she said.
Baleto adds $225,000 was budgeted for premiums for the Port's Workers Compensation insurance along with $100,000 for the existing cases the port has to continue to pay. The budget further contains funding to replace staff in critical positions, safety equipment and increments.