SPEAKER Edmund S. Villagomez and Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider have asked Gov. Ralph DLG Torres not to reduce the American Rescue Plan Act funds he originally allocated for the Legislature.
In his April 27, 2021 budget revision message, the governor informed Hofschneider and Villagomez that he was “adjusting” the ARPA funds for the Legislature citing the funding cap imposed by the CNMI Constitution.
The governor reduced the House members’ ARPA funds to $1.2 million from $3 million and the Senate’s share to $540,000 from $1.35 million. He also cut the Legislative Bureau’s ARPA funds to $65,237 from $581,672.
In his ARPA fund expenditure plan, the governor said he will use $123 million of the $515 million federal assistance for CNMI government personnel and operations in fiscal year 2022.
As for local funds, the governor has allotted $1.8 million for House members; $810,000 for senators; and $1.93 million for the Legislative Bureau.
Inflation rate
In their joint letter to the governor, Villagomez and Hofschneider noted that the governor cited the CNMI Constitution’s provision on funding cap, but not the provision mandating a ceiling adjustment every two years based on the composite price index or inflation rate, beginning FY 1996.
“The CNMI government calculated and officially adopted these adjusted figures mandated by Article 2 Section 16 (e) in the last CNMI Annual Appropriation Act and in doing so, we complied with the constitutional mandate to lift the ceilings when the CNMI Legislature enacted, and you signed into law, Public Law 21-35,” Villagomez and Hofschneider said.
They said the budget ceiling for each lawmaker’s allocations on Oct. 1, 1995 was $150,000; for the presiding officers, $400,000; and the Legislative Bureau, $2 million.
They said based on the change in the price index in 2020 and 2021 which, they added, is 60.335%, the budget ceiling for each House member should have gone up to $240,515; for the presiding officers, $641,340; and the LB, $3.2 million.
Villagomez and Hofschneider said they agree that the CNMI Constitution sets the budget ceiling of the allocations for lawmakers, presiding officers and the LB.
“However,” they added, “the CNMI Constitution also provides that the stated ceiling for various business units within the legislative branch must be adjusted. Significantly, Article 2, Section 16 (e) provides that the Legislature’s budget shall, as it is constitutionally mandated, be adjusted ‘every two years by the same percentage as the percentage change in the United States Department of Commerce composite price index during the two preceding fiscal years using the beginning of fiscal year 1996 as a base,’” Villagomez and Hofscheider reiterated.
They also said that the constitutional budget ceilings pertain to funds directly sourced and provided by the CNMI general fund. They said an external funding source like ARPA “was not contemplated with respect to the general fund appropriation limitation.”
“In this particular matter,” they added, “two funding sources will be utilized to attain the Legislature’s FY 2022 budget at the constitutionally permitted levels —the general fund and ARPA. Accordingly, as long as the CNMI Legislature’s budget is funded significantly…by the ARPA then the [higher] proposed ceiling…is legally sufficient and perfectly constitutional.”
Villagomez and Hofschneider said there “is no violation of the CNMI Constitution to the extent ARPA funds are used…as long as the funds directly allocated from the [CNMI] general fund are at or below the constitutional limits.
They requested from the governor an additional $4.8 million on top of the combined adjusted amount of $6.8 million for a total of $11.6 million.
