NMC unlikely to get fund boost from user fees

Despite earlier projections that funds can be sourced from poker fees, the Northern Marianas College is not expected to receive additional appropriation for some 530 students under the government financial aid program, legislators said yesterday.

Revenues amounting to $488,000 from renewal of poker licenses previously identified by the Saipan delegation are apparently not there, dashing hopes by members to supplant shortfall in NMC budget for this year.

Finance officials have disclosed that the money cannot be realized for FY 1999 because the 244 poker machines had renewed their licenses even before Saipan passed a law last December that increased the fee by $2,000 for local appropriation.

Rep. Ana Teregeyo, chair of the delegation’s Ways and Means Committee, said she would introduce a local bill to allocate funds for the financially troubled college once the finance department has released actual estimates from the poker income.

The legislature has lifted the ceiling on the number of amusement machines that can be operated in the CNMI, but raised the license fees to generate badly needed revenues for the crisis-hit island government.

Saipan legislators last month set aside income from the 244 machines to bring $488,000 into the local coffers which can be used for the Educational Assistance Program for about 530 NMC students waiting to receive their money this spring semester.

House Speaker Diego T. Benavente, who met early last month with NMC officials to discuss the cash flow problem, vowed to seek ways to assist the college in its present financial dilemma.

“Because education is a priority, if it means cutting even more nonessential services and even cutting the legislature, that money has to be identified for students whom we have committed to under the current appropriation,” he said in an interview after the House leadership meeting yesterday.

NMC has appealed to the legislature and to Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio for $570,000 in additional appropriation to cover shortfall in the scholarship program which ran out of funds after the initial budget was entirely used up in the last semester.

Students from the CNMI’s lone higher learning institution have protested what they claim as government neglect and preference for off-island students who receive generous scholarships package.

Vicky Villagomez, acting special advisor for budget and management, has proposed suspension of grants for all students this summer and drastic cut in off-island scholarships to cover the funding shortfall.

This will amend the existing law that provides unlimited scholarship grants to CNMI residents attending college in the mainland in an effort to save at least $300,000 for the remaining months.

“It’ still short but this should not go on. It’s better to have something (in the coffers) than nothing at all,” said House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Karl T. Reyes.

He has also suggested that the administration borrow money from private banks, the Retirement Fund as well as from Marianas Public Land Trust to address the problem.

Due to continuous plunge in actual revenue collections spawned by the worst economic crisis in the CNMI, the government has reduced allotment to all departments and agencies by 13.4 percent to prevent huge deficit this year.