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Local delegations get to keep their revenue
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Posted on Jun 18 2005
Acting Gov. Diego T. Benavente signed a bill into law Friday authorizing the creation of separate revenue accounts for each senatorial district.
Benavente signed House Bill 14-311, authored by Rep. Jesus Attao, which aims to create three funds for each senatorial district: the Rota Local Funds, Tinian Local Funds, and Saipan Local Funds.
This measure limits the use of local funds to the district where the revenues come from.
Attao’s bill provides that all revenues from local revenue laws shall be deposited into the local funds according to the senatorial district where the revenues are derived and shall be available for appropriation by the respective legislative delegation.
To implement this, the bill repeals 1 CMC section 1408. This provision mandates the Department of Finance to control and regulate the expenditure of public funds. The department segregates the funds derived from each respective senatorial district into sub-accounts.
Meantime, the bill further provides that within 15 days after the end of each fiscal year, the Secretary of Finance shall submit a written financial report to the chair of each legislative delegation. It said that only fund balances for scholarship shall be carried over to the next fiscal year without further appropriations.
Benavente noted that the new measure allows “all fund balances for the Saipan Higher Education Financial Assistance Program to be carried over to the following year and remain available without future appropriation.”
“This will address the administrative and practical problems caused by the fact that unobligated funds balances that had been appropriated to SHEFA used to revert to the local revenue accounts at the end of each fiscal year,” he said.
In his transmittal letter to the Legislature, Benavente noted that a new piece of legislation must be passed for immediate approval to ensure the creation a separate account for the Northern Islands.
He said the Office of the Mayor of the Northern Islands has expressed concern that the measure does not include the Northern Islands.
