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NMC presents budget request; lawmakers tour campus
Officials of the Northern Marianas College discussed their $8.481 million budget request for fiscal year 2016 with members of the Legislature in the college’s room D1 yesterday.
The college also presented some of the “belt-tightening” cost reductions they have made due to a limited budget, among other things.
Before lunch, members of both the Senate and House toured the campus. College officials highlighted some of their “facility challenges” during stops at the college’s nursing building, computer and science lab, for example.
During the budget presentation, Sen. Sixto Igisomar (R-Saipan) asked the college to further prepare data for the “whole picture” of the college’s costs so that members of the Legislature would have a better “visual aid” of what they are working with come budget season.
Aside from the money it gets from the local government, NMC also gets an average of $4.9 million in federal funds every year.
The college’s new budget request includes costs for personnel, utilities, and the mandatory Public Auditor’s mandatory 1 percent.
Some 61 percent of the budget goes to wages and salaries.
The college has included overload and adjunct costs for the first time. Historically, they paid this out of revenue from tuition and fees.
The college requests funding for 136 full-time positions, which translates to some $6.14 million in wages, salaries, and benefits.
The college also requests that five FTEs be reinstated. They are two business instructors; a science, health, math, and athletics instructor; an enrollment coordinator; and program manager for workforce investment.
Historically, the college asks for about $8 million to $9 million from the Legislature every year, according to chief financial officer Tracy Guerrero yesterday.
They were appropriated about $4.4 million in fiscal year 2015 and $4.1 million in fiscal year 2014.
From 2007 to 2015, they have never been funded more than $5 million.
