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Kudos to the Legislature
In my remarks to the Legislature in July I urged appropriation of funds for the Public School System and Northern Marianas College to meet the maintenance-of-effort requirements the Commonwealth government agreed to when accepting the 2009 State Fiscal Stabilization Fund grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
Some say I was unfairly critical of our Legislature. But the consequence of breaking the maintenance-of-effort agreement could be that the federal government withholds future grants to recover the $44 million in SFSF money. That would put hundreds of Commonwealth government employees’ jobs on the line.
Those employees should be relieved that the Legislature’s 2015 budget is reported to include $1.161 million for PSS and $157,000 for NMC. That’s far short of the $9 million to $11 million that PSS estimates it is owed. But Commonwealth officials can point to the appropriation, when negotiating with the U.s. Department of Education, as showing good faith that the Commonwealth intends to keep the SFSF agreement.
I congratulate our Legislature for taking this first step and the governor, who is reported to be ready to sign the 2015 budget. And I continue to urge our local elected leaders to pay all the money promised to PSS and NMC.
Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan
Garapan, Saipan
