NMC: NMI govt will owe $3.3M

The Northern Marianas College will be about $3.3 million short of its fiscal year 2019 budget entering FY 2020, if they do not receive any allocation by the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30, 2019.

It was learned at the last Board of Regents meeting that NMC was supposed to get $5.2 million in fiscal year 2019, as outlined in Public Law 20-67, the Appropriations and Budget Authority Act of 2019.

NMC chief financial officer Andrew Reese reported to the that NMC board, though, that the college has only received about $2.8 million so far from the CNMI government.

“We are approximately five months behind payment from the central government,” Reese told the board regarding allotments through P.L. 20-67. NMC was also supposed to receive a total of $1 million through P.L. 20-68, which is the casino business gross revenue tax appropriation; NMC has only received $142,857.14 of that amount to date, he said.

Of the $500,000 expected from P.L. 20-67 through the Commonwealth Worker Fund or the Commonwealth Worker Apprenticeship Program, Reese said that NMC has only received $250,000.

In all, NMC was supposed to receive a total of $6.7 million in fiscal year 2019, but has only received $3.19 million to date. That means NMC has received only about 47% of its FY19 revenue.

With the austerity measures that were implemented at the college last April, the funds that were expected to go to NMC in fiscal year 2019 was dropped from $6.7 million to $5.9 million, which is a 15% decrease. Yet even then, NMC is still owed funds. Including the cut from austerity measures, NMC has only gotten about 53% of its overall allotments for fiscal year 2019.

NMC will also be receiving $500,000 through Saipan Local Law 21-05, which adjusts the local appropriations of poker licensing fees. This funding is seen to help NMC get out of austerity measures.

NMC board member Michael Evangelista suggested that NMC should be more forthright with the central government about the needed funds, as NMC will not be able to take any further cuts in fiscal year 2020.

The board fully agreed with Evangelista’s suggestion.

Reese told the board that staff of NMC’s budget and finance committee met with the various departments on all of NMC’s campuses to see which expenditures were to be prioritized and what could be cut in order to accommodate the austerity measures.

Once the austerity measures were implemented, NMC offices were set to half-day schedules on Fridays until further notice.

Reese reported that NMC’s record of financial stewardship and responsibility is over 20 years to date and he considers it as a spotless record, and that this long record allowed NMC to absorb the cuts from the austerity measures without cutting employee salaries. However, he reported that NMC will not be able to sustain another year of financial cuts.