CNMI yet to get share in $267M federal funding for insular areas

While states began receiving their fiscal stabilization money in April, the CNMI and three other insular areas have yet to receive their share of up to $267 million in stimulus funding set aside for them, according to Delegate Gregorio “Kilili” C. Sablan.

Sablan and U.S. Virgin Islands Delegate Donna M. Christensen wrote to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, asking for action on the distribution of money from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund section of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, for the CNMI, Guam, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“I am very concerned about this delay. Recovery Act money is supposed to protect the jobs of teachers and stimulate the local economy. Those goals won’t be met until Secretary Duncan releases the funds,” Sablan said in a statement yesterday.

“I hope that Secretary Duncan makes these issues a priority so that we can start spending money in the Northern Marianas and get our economy back on track,” he added.

In their May 1 letter to Duncan, Sablan and Christensen said two weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Education began the process of releasing State Fiscal Stabilization Fund monies to the 50 states.

These monies were to provide a quick stimulus to local economies, protect teachers’ jobs, and put the nation’s schools on the path to energy efficiency.

“Mr. Secretary, we urge you to distribute the SFSF [State Fiscal Stabilization Fund] as rapidly as possible so that the citizens in the outlying areas can feel the same relief as their fellow Americans across the continental United States,” Sablan and Christensen told Duncan.

The two delegates said this is the time when teachers and school administrators must begin planning for the next academic year, and plan the repairs, renovations and improvements that should take place.

“Some of our school systems have already created detailed plans for the monies they hope to receive. They are ready to be submitted, and we are optimistic that these plans, if executed, will provide great relief to our schools, preserve the jobs of teachers and other school employees, and help ensure that our students receive an education that will prepare them to meet the challenges of the new economy,” Sablan and Christensen said.

Earlier, a turf battle between the Public School System and the Fitial administration ensued after Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, along with the governors of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa, wrote to President Obama in March, asking to let the Department of the Interior administer the stabilization funds, not the Department of Education. CNMI education officials want the U.S. Department of Education to administer the funds.

In consultation

CNMI Commerce Secretary Michael Ada said the U.S. Department of Education is still consulting with the Department of the Interior on how to administer the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund.

“The only application that has not been accepted—we submitted it—was the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, which is [around] $48 million. …The Department of Education received it, but they’re in consultation with the Department of the Interior on how to administer the money. The CNMI has already submitted its application; we’re just waiting for them to put that out and we’ll know when we will receive the money,” Ada told Saipan Tribune.

CNMI education officials said the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund section of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act requires that 81.8 percent of funding must go toward education, while the remaining 18.2 percent can go to public safety and other government services, including assistance for elementary and secondary education and public institutions of higher education. It can also be used for modernization, renovation, or repair of public school facilities and higher education facilities.

The Fitial administration said it would use the 18.2 percent discretionary fund, estimated to be about $8 million, to cover the payroll costs for government employees for the rest of the fiscal year.