Opposition: Certified question a good option

Those opposed to a salary increase for elected officials were relieved to learn yesterday that the Department of Finance is “voluntarily agreeing” to an injunction, effectively preventing it from implementing the increases.

House minority leader Rep. Edmund Villagomez (Ind-Saipan), who was one of those who opposed the increases authorized by Public Law 19-83, told Saipan Tribune that he is “more at ease” with his vote pertaining to the issue.

“We pledged to uphold all of the laws and the Constitution of the U.S. and the Commonwealth,” Villagomez said, adding that when it came to questioning a law’s constitutionality, there is a “process that needs to be followed.”

Villagomez, along with House minority bloc members Reps. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan) and Vinson Sablan (Ind-Saipan), opposed the fiscal year 2018 budget, due to the provision for a salary increase.

Finance Secretary Larissa Larson and Attorney General Edward Manibusan have submitted two certified questions with the Supreme Court relating to the increase. A briefing on the matter is scheduled in September.

“It’s good to see something like this so we could get a clarification,” Villagomez said. “We have a three-branch government for the checks and balances and that’s when [it] comes to play, when the [Judiciary] interprets the law.”

Propst referred to the injunction as a “step in the right direction.” He said in a message that the best way to go was to eliminate the salary increases altogether.

“All it would take is for the leadership to take action on my House Bill 20-39, which aims to eliminate the salary increases [totaling] to…$1.2 million in additional needed revenue every single year for 35 elected officials,” said Propst.

Propst also proposed a floor amendment to the fiscal year 2018 budget, which re-appropriates $1,018,772 that is supposed to go to the salary increases to the Department of Public Safety. The amendment was ultimately defeated during voting in late July 2017.

House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Angel Demapan (R-Saipan) had no comments on the injunction, but said the certified question joint petition route would “bring some finality to the issue.”

He reiterated previous statements he made that stood by P.L. 19-83. “There is an existing law and we budgeted according to the existing law,” he said, adding that the certified question route is a good one for clarity.

“When the Supreme Court rules out its response to the question, it would at least give us guidelines to approach the issue, whether it is constitutional or not. At this point, everything is in limbo until we get a response from the court.”

Hofschneider, Sablan, and House Speaker Ralph Demapan (R-Saipan), the author of the bill that eventually became P.L. 19-83, were not available when Saipan Tribune attempted to interview them.

Yesterday’s Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee meeting was cancelled; no Senate reactions were obtained.

What now?

According to Demapan, the Legislature has three options.

One is to push through with the appropriations but “just not pay it out” until a decision from the Supreme Court is finalized.

“We do not know if the response is going to come before or after [the end of fiscal year 2017],” said Demapan, adding that if the Supreme Court finds that P.L. 19-83 is unconstitutional, the funds could be re-appropriated to “other programs.”

“If the court rules that the law is constitutional, then the [Finance] secretary already has the funds appropriated to pay it out,” he said.

The third option, Demapan said, is just to already re-appropriate the money intended for the salary increases without waiting for the Supreme Court ruling; however, the problem with this option is if the ruling says that the increases are constitutional.

“[This] would mean the Legislature would now have to identify new funding sources [for the salary increases],” he said, adding that the fiscal year 2018 budget is now with the Senate and is still under review by the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee.

MD: Those opposed to a salary increase for elected officials are relieved