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Pago Pago – American Samoa
At the opening of the 38th Legislature, the Honourable Governor Lemanu PS Mauga presented the government budget for the fiscal year 2025, which is $733,683,167. Of this, the local budget is $165,907,000 (23%). This is an increase of 16% compared to last year’s budget. This is a major addition to the current government’s term.
The FY 2025 budget estimate was 51% larger than the budget the governor received in his first year in office. When the FY 2021 budget was received for FY 2022, the FY 2023 budget was increased (6%) over FY 2022. The FY 2024 budget was also found to have increased (22%).
It is common for governments to try to increase their budgets in line with the increase in the cost of living. However, the government budget is increasing faster than the cost of living.
While it is not possible to see what the cost of living increase will be in 2025, it is possible to compare the cost of living increases from 2021 to 2024 with local budget increases.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the pilot project increased the existing budget by 30%, but the cost of living in the U.S. increased by 15%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the cost of living will increase by about 3% from 2024 to 2025, which is much lower than the 16% increase projected in the local budget.
The local budget for fiscal year 2025 is far less than the revenue for fiscal year 2023 listed in the government audit report. In fiscal year 2023, the government collected $164,253,222 in cash from American Samoa.
But the Governor believes that the economy in fiscal year 2025 will be the same as fiscal year 2023. But in fiscal year 2023, the territory had high revenues due to covid 19.
The Honorable Senator Magalei Logovii has requested a recent report from the Finance Office to verify the government’s revenues compared to its expenditures.
According to the government budget for the second quarter of 2024, uncollected funds appear to be $4,220,315 and the loss (deficit) is $11,883,015.
If the council can process the recent third quarter report and confirm whether revenue for fiscal 2023 and the next fiscal year is achievable, they will be able to get a full picture of the situation.
However, the government’s quarterly budget is somewhat incomplete.
In FY 2023, the fourth quarter financial report stated that the amount collected was $188,407,047. However, in the FY 2023 audit, the amount collected was only $164,253,222. The same is true for the report of “revenue collection”, the best of which is the amount collected from the book test.
For fiscal year 2025, the Governor estimates that he will be able to collect $87.8 million in “income tax” and $34.1 million in “excise tax”. Additional funding is expected to increase by 20% over the last year since the inception of the current administration (104% increase in “income tax” and 31% increase in “excise tax”).
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