The Legislature still has over three weeks left to settle the certified question issue that the CNMI State Board of Education is hoping to clarify for its funding sources. The board is seeking clarification on what are general revenues and the 25 percent it is entitled to as stated in the CNMI Constitution.<\/p>\n
The board, in its meeting last month, decided to give the government\u2014administration of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and the Legislature\u2014until the end of the month to answer it\u2019s certified question or they would be forced to file a lawsuit against them and let the courts, once and for all, settle the issue.<\/p>\n
But the House Ways & Means committee, which pens the local budget and allocates money to the government, is still waiting for the identification of other funding sources before it could appropriate money.<\/p>\n
Committee chair Rep. Angel A. Demapan (R-Saipan) said that although he and House Speaker Ralph S. Demapan (R-Saipan) have yet to discuss the issue, the Legislature is more than willing to settle it before the end of the month.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was [the Public School System] and the speaker that had been discussing it. I haven\u2019t had the chance to ask the speaker about it and discuss it with PSS. But [right now] we\u2019re waiting for the identification of additional funds and I believe the governor is working on something,\u201d said Angel Demapan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same process is followed where the governor and the Finance secretary will identify the funds as available for appropriation and they send that identification to the Legislature. That\u2019s when we at the [Ways & Means] committee, put together an appropriation bill. At this point, we can\u2019t appropriate money that hasn\u2019t been identified as available.\u201d<\/p>\n
Education a priority<\/strong><\/p>\n The Torres administration, in a statement sent to the Saipan Tribune, said they continue to support education as evident on the budget proposal they had sent to the Legislature. \u201cWhile we respect the legislative process in deliberating the budget, this administration will continue to join the BOE and PSS administrators in prioritizing education for our students,\u201d said the statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThis year, governor Torres\u2019 proposal saw a $6.2-million increase in PSS\u2019 local commitment\u2014about $42.8 million, which is more than 25 percent of the government\u2019s budgetary resources available for appropriation.\u201d<\/p>\n The administration has identified gross budgetary resources of $258,137,107 for fiscal year 2019 with 91 percent of it coming from the business gross revenue tax, income tax, excise tax, hotel occupancy tax, bar tax, and beautification tax. The BGRT is 34 percent of that budgetary resources or $87,675,000 <\/p>\n The net budget resources ready for appropriation is $167,039,225 less the adjustment for debt service appropriations, earmarked funds, and other legal obligations. PSS is allotted a budget of $42,775,117 or 29 percent from the allocated budget between the branches of government and other programs.<\/p>\n The amount, however, does not include other future supplemental appropriations within FY 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cHistorically, in past supplemental appropriations, which are subject to the amount of BGRT to our government coffers, PSS has received as much as $10 million. The administration will continue to make education a critical budgetary priority for the benefit of our students and teachers,\u201d the administration said in the statement.<\/p>\n Going back to govt<\/strong><\/p>\n BOE board member Herman T. Guerrero, who is also a former chair, said the money appropriated for PSS that they did not spend would go back to the government. \u201cThe [CNMI] Constitution said it would revert back to the general funds for re-appropriation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTechnically, money we don\u2019t use goes back to the government, it doesn\u2019t continue to the next fiscal year. It\u2019s unusual because you don\u2019t find that in any other office that was given an earmark.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that the government must finally address the issue since it has been going on for years. \u201cAnd every time we go there [Capital Hill], we go through the same hassles. Even lawyers and the Attorney General have different interpretations.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt needs to be clarified, it\u2019s not a question of right and wrong, we need to have a clear mind on what we are really entitled. Answer the question: what is the general revenue and what\u2019s earmark?\u201d<\/p>\n BOE legal counsel Tiberius Mocanu, in last month\u2019s meeting, said the lawsuit is complete and they are ready to file. \u201cWhat\u2019s left is when to file. The board has already decided that the lawsuit be prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if we can\u2019t settle the certified questions then the lawsuit will be filed. These have been resolved; the filing date is the only question,\u201d added Mocanu.<\/p>\n MD: Legislature still waits identification of funding sources.<\/p>\n KW: Legislature, Angel Demapan, Ralph Demapan, budget, funds, PSS, education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Legislature still has over three weeks left to settle the certified question issue that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,37,259,40],"class_list":["post-279842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-budget","tag-education-2","tag-lawsuit","tag-pss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279842\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}