Tracy Norita
TINIAN Finance resident department head Milissa A. Mendiola has asked Finance Secretary Tracy B. Norita for assistance to fund the prepaid utility meter account of the island’s Customs Division, which is facing disconnection on Jan. 8, 2024.
In her response, Norita said: “Before the current administration took office early this year, a substantial amount of ARPA funding was transferred to the Tinian municipal treasurer under the Mayor of Tinian’s jurisdiction.”
According to Finance, an expenditure report provided by the Tinian municipality on June 27, 2023, stated that available funds of about $2.9 million remained, and $400,000 was reserved for operations until Sept. 30, 2023.
Finance said Tinian also reported that $800,000 was reserved for the Tinian mayor’s office and resident department operations, which include utilities, for FY 2024. The mayor’s office projected that at the end of Sept. 2024, Tinian would still have a remaining balance of $847,000 for projects, events, services, and payroll, Finance said.
In October, Tinian Mayor Edwin P. Aldan asked the Office of the Governor and Finance for assistance in paying the municipal government’s utility bills. He later said that “both requests have gone unanswered.”
But according to Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, Tinian’s reserved funds, “which are at…Tinian’s discretion, may be utilized for the municipality’s critical needs, including addressing outstanding utility invoices incurred by the various departments, including those discussed in recent news articles.”
“This discretion is consistent with Section 707 of the Public Law 23-9 of the FY 2024 Appropriation Act, which provides appropriation and budget authority to the Mayor of Tinian and Aguigan. The mayor’s authority extends to the funds allocated to resident departments,” the governor said.
“Section 707 of the P.L. 23-9 states ‘except as provided in this section, the Mayor of Tinian and Aguigan shall have authority to expend, obligate, encumber, or otherwise commit or reprogram all the funds appropriated to the Second Senatorial District. The mayor shall also have expenditure authority over resident government departments in the first and second senatorial districts respectively.’ ”
For her part, Special Assistant for Management and Budget Vicky Villagomez said Amendment 25 to the CNMI Constitution gives the mayor the reprogramming and expenditure authority over all resident departments in Tinian. She also said that when the governor signed the FY 2024 budget, he stressed the existing funding gap and inadequacy of appropriations of utilities under P.L. 23-9.
Palacios cited the lack of sufficient funds within the executive branch utilities account when he line-item vetoed the budget measure’s Section 601(c), which would have required the central government to cover the shortfall of utility costs for the municipalities as well as the judicial and legislative branches of the CNMI government.
The administration said the veto of this section helped prevent additional financial burdens and minimized the impact on public services provided by the executive branch.
The governor’s decision, conveyed to the Legislature on Sept. 30, 2023, “demonstrates a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility, diligence, and the maintenance of essential public services,” the administration said.
