During his 2006 inauguration, the governor’s supporters raised more than $50,000 to complement the government’s $200,000 inaugural budget.
This year, the cash-strapped CNMI government will not tap taxpayer money for the inauguration ceremony because of the islands’ dire economic situation.
In the U.S., private funds have been tapped to finance presidential inauguration.
President Obama’s inaugural committee raised about $45 million in private funds for his Jan. 20, 2009 inauguration.
The federal government separately budgeted $49 million for security, venue, transportation, among other expenses.
Emphasizing a “change to business as usual,” Obama’s committee set stringent guidelines for contributions, barring donations from corporations, political action committees, registered federal lobbyists, labor and trade unions, registered foreign agents and non-U.S. citizens.
In the CNMI, some taxpayers have raised ethical concerns about the administration receiving thousands of dollars from the private sector.
The Variety asked Attorney General Edward Buckingham what the law says about tapping private funds for events like the gubernatorial inauguration ceremony.
Buckingham declined to comment.
“As you may know, the role of the Attorney General’s Office is to serve as the chief legal advisor to the commonwealth. This role does not include advisory legal opinions or legal opinion requests arising from outside the government. Advisory opinions are those that address hypothetical situations that might arise in the future. Courts also do not issue advisory opinions,” Buckingham told the Variety in an e-mail.
He noted that his office currently has limited resources to do detailed research.
“Legal opinion requests arising from outside the government are not properly considered by the AGO. The reason for this includes both our scarce resources and the fact that such opinions might well create unanticipated conflicts of interest for the commonwealth at some future point,” he said.
