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OIA declines to fund NMI delegate election
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Posted on Jun 05 2008
The U.S. Department of the Interior has declined the local government’s request for money to conduct the election for a Northern Marianas delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Resident Representative Pete A. Tenorio asked OIA for help. He said the local government cannot afford its first federal election because of budgetary problems, which are expected to get worse next fiscal year.
The Commonwealth Election Commission has estimated the election to cost at least $50,000.
Nikolao I. Pula, director of the Interior Department’s Office of Insular Affairs, said the states and the territories have traditionally paid for the election of their representatives or delegates.
“The voters of the CNMI will choose the delegate, and it is the responsibility of these voters, through their government and their financing mechanism, to fund the CNMI election process,” said Pula.
Tenorio, in a letter to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, suggested that the administration ask the Commonwealth Legislature to appropriate funds for the Nov. 3, 2008 election.
Speaker Arnold I. Palacios has said the House of Representatives is looking at possibly transferring money from the soon-to-be-defunct resident representative’s office to the election.
Tenorio’s current office has an average budget of $1 million a year. Since the office will cease to exist by January 2009, Tenorio has requested only one third of this amount for fiscal year 2009.
The federal government will pay for the expenses of the Northern Marianas delegate, including the delegate’s salary which is currently at $169,300 a year.
The Northern Marianas delegate seat was included in recently enacted legislation that allows the U.S. government to take over local immigration control.
The Interior Department has helped pushed for a delegate measure. Pula, in his letter to Tenorio, congratulated the Commonwealth on getting the seat in the House. “I believe that such representation on Capitol Hill will go far toward gaining proper consideration of CNMI issues in Congress,” he said.
