With teachers facing a pay cut\u2014or termination\u2014the question of what voters approved in the\u00a025 percent-for-PSS constitutional amendment is more important than ever.<\/p>\n
Voters decided our teachers, students, and schools should have 25 percent of the \u201cgeneral revenues\u201d\u00a0of the Commonwealth each year. When I voted with the majority to give our schools that solid\u00a0base of funding, I certainly thought\u00a0general revenues meant everything the government takes in as taxes.<\/p>\n
But the Legislature and the governor have a different idea. They subtract earmarked taxes and\u00a0other expenses from the total. Taxes like the cigarette excise tax and alcohol container tax, they\u00a0say, are not part of the \u201cgeneral revenues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, this goes against the Governmental Accounting Standards Board definition that \u201call\u00a0revenues are\u00a0general revenues\u201d and \u201call taxes, even those levied for a specific purpose,\u00a0are\u00a0general revenues.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is not entirely a legal question; it is more an accounting principle question. The Governmental Accounting Standards Board, by the way, sets the accounting principles used\u00a0by state and local governments in the United States. But the Commonwealth government has\u00a0had trouble following those rules: Adverse opinions in the most recent single audit, for 2017,\u00a0were for lack of adherence to GASB.<\/p>\n
Don’t believe me? Read the Single Audit Report. Or, ask OPA or Deloitte.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is more than an academic argument between accountants. If the Legislature and the\u00a0governor had played it straight, PSS would have received over $64 million in this year\u2019s budget.\u00a0Instead, teachers, students, and schools only got $42 million.<\/p>\n
Now, teachers are being forced to choose between a pay cut or termination. In part, because\u00a0the economy is taking a dive. But, also, because the Commonwealth government decided to ignore the\u00a0voters and shortchange our schools.<\/p>\n
Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan represents the Marianas in the U.S. Congress and chairs the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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