The CNMI Supreme Court has responded to three certified questions that Gov. Ralph DLG. Torres and Board of Education chair Marylou S. Ada submitted to the court about what constitutes government \u201crevenue\u201d and the constitutionally-mandated share of the Public School System.<\/p>\n
Specifically, the two officials asked the high court\u2019s opinion about their duties and responsibilities under Article XV, Section 1(e) of the Constitution of the Northern Mariana Islands: \u201cThe public elementary and secondary education system shall be guaranteed an annual budget of not less than twenty-five percent of the general revenues of the Commonwealth through an annual appropriation. The budgetary appropriation may not be reprogrammed for other purposes, and any unencumbered fund balance at the end of a fiscal year shall be available by reappropriation.\u201d <\/p>\n
Answering the first question on what revenues comprise \u201cgeneral revenues\u201d within the meaning of Article XV, Section 1(e), the Supreme Court held that \u201cgeneral revenue\u201d is a subset of the Commonwealth\u2019s revenue, distinct from special revenue. To qualify as special revenue, there must be a relationship between the revenue\u2019s source and the revenue\u2019s purpose. If there is no relationship, those revenues are general revenues, of which PSS is entitled to a percentage. <\/p>\n
On the second question concerning the Legislature\u2019s authority to suspend earmarks in appropriations bills, the BOE and the governor concede the Legislature does have the authority to suspend earmarks, transforming those revenues into general revenue, which are subject to PSS\u2019s guarantee. <\/p>\n
Finally, the Supreme Court also held that PSS is entitled to a portion of supplemental budgets passed when the CNMI experiences a revenue surplus. That is, PSS\u2019 guarantee is not restricted to a single annual appropriations bill. However, when there is a revenue shortfall, the Legislature may proportionately reduce PSS\u2019 share, so long as PSS\u2019 25% share is preserved. <\/p>\n
The Supreme Court\u2019s full opinion is available at http:\/\/cnmilaw.org\/supreme20.html
\nThe NMI Constitution permits elected and\/or public officials to request the Supreme Court to answer legal questions touching upon the exercise of their respective responsibilities. (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The CNMI Supreme Court has responded to three certified questions that Gov. Ralph DLG. Torres…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-315688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315688","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}