Inos said he met with NMC officials on Thursday to review the budget worksheet and ensure that it indicated the amount required by PSS and NMC.
Meeting the MOE allows PSS and NMC to continue receiving federal assistance.
For fiscal year 2012, the administration has proposed a $102 million budget.
PSS and NMC, Inos said, will have to get about 24 percent and 3 percent, respectively, of the budget amount to meet the MOE requirement.
“Of course we just have to meet it. If we don’t meet it, we will have to cough up more money for them,” Inos said, referring to PSS and NMC.
The FY 2012 budget bill that the House of Representatives approved last week allotted $27.9 million for PSS and $4 million for NMC.
But PSS financial consultant Ed Tenorio told lawmakers the amount is not enough for PSS to meet the MOE requirement.
NMC, too, is not getting enough to meet the MOE requirement, according to its president, Sharon Hart.
In her letter to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, Hart said the level of financial support for the college “has dropped below a threshold required to meet the MOE requirement.”
She said the proposed NMC budget is $1.2 million below the average appropriation for the college from FY 2007 to FY 2011 which was $5.2 million.
Zero effect
The $1.9 million Compact-Impact grant from the Department of the Interior, Inos said, “has zero effect” on the local funds available for appropriation, that is why it does not appear on the list of revenues to be appropriated.
“We treat it as a federal grant. And if we include it as resources, it has a zero effect on the funds available to be appropriated because if you add it, you also [have to] show the application,” he said.
If PSS and NMC get the Compact-Impact funds, “we basically reduce what needs to be appropriated because they are getting Compact-Impact.”
The House minority bloc made an attempt to include PSS and NMC on the list of government agencies that would receive Compact-Impact fund but the proposal was defeated by the House leadership.
The Senate substitute bill, according to Senate Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes, R-Saipan, will identify Compact-Impact as part of the total financial resources.
The Senate bill will also give PSS and NMC the Legislature’s leadership accounts and individual discretionary funds.
According to the House version of the FY 2012 budget, the following agencies will receive Compact-Impact funds: the Office of Public Defender, the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Public Health and the Department of Public Safety.
