Delaying CIP funding is better alternative • House Speaker Benavente says Murkowski’s proposal won’t hurt CNMI

A recommendation to defer appropriation of U.S. construction grants to the Northern Marianas has gained support from House Speaker Diego T. Benavente who said this would be a better alternative than the initial proposal to slash the funding by half.

“I would agree… that if we can’t spend funding for year 2000, why should Congress appropriate it,” he explained. “If we can spend it at a later time because we will still receive it anyway, then that doesn’t hurt us.”

Benavente was commenting on the recommendation of Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska), to withhold the Covenant 702 grants instead of cutting the $11 million-a-year assistance by 51 percent to increase Guam’s share.

The senator, who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources which deals with island issues, said the Commonwealth should not be punished for its failure to meet the matching requirement for capital improvement project funds.

According to Benavente, Murkowski’s suggestion will carry weight during deliberation of President Clinton’s spending plan for the next fiscal year.

“If we don’t come through with matching as soon as possible, the committee rather than taking it away will consider just delaying,” he said.

Murkowski made the request to Sen. Slade Gorton, chair of the Subcommittee on Interior under the Senate Committee of Appropriations which is currently reviewing the budget proposal submitted by the Office of Insular Affairs.

Under the White House’s spending plan, the CNMI will receive $5.6 million for its annual construction grants — a 51 percent drop from the $11 million in yearly CIP assistance provided to the island government since 1996.

The cutback in infrastructure funds will benefit Guam, where Clinton promised to pump in more federal money during a visit last November, getting a $10 million in total appropriation for FY2000, part of which represents payment for the cost of hosting citizens from the Freely Associated States.

The proposed reduction stemmed from the significant backlog in previous year grants that remain unspent due to the Commonwealth’s inability to set aside matching local funds.

But Benavente underscored the need to maintain the current CIP funding level, noting the various infrastructure projects lined up by the island government for the next three years in a bid to spur the local economy.

“While we have some problems matching it, we are making efforts to find the matching and I believe that when we do find the matching and when we do have the matching, we will be able to justify expenditures of all of this money,” he said.

Although Murkowski’s recommendation would boost CNMI’s chances to keep its share of the OIA’s budget, the Speaker expressed worry that any delay in Washington’s financial assistance could dampen the island’s infrastructure plan.

“That is something that we don’t want to happen. I believe that the full $11 million should be appropriated for the Commonwealth government and I believe that we can still find appropriation (to match),” he said.

So far, the island government has identified more than $30 million in local funding — from bond flotation and other sources — to mobilize an equivalent amount from federal funding, representing a sizable portion of the $77 million needed by the CNMI to match CIP money.