OAG: Persons can lobby to lawmakers, avail of tax offsetting program

To get payments from court judgments against the CNMI government, persons can lobby to lawmakers or avail of tax offsets program, according to the Office of the Attorney General.

Assistant attorney general David Lochabay, counsel for the government, said historically, persons with judgments and other claims against governments have lobbied legislatures for private bills to pay them.

Lochabay also stated that the CNMI has instituted a program where persons with judgments against the Commonwealth may obtain payments through tax offsets.

Lochabay discussed the court judgments issue in the government’s response to Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho’s question if there is any other mechanism for plaintiffs Jotonia B. Aguon and Timothy Cruz to seek payment of their judgment against the government in light of the repeated failure of the Legislature to appropriate for court-ordered judgments.

Aguon and Cruz are holding a $35,000 judgment against the government over the death of their child during delivery in 2012 at the Commonwealth Health Center.

Camacho also raised other questions as he invited the Legislature, the Office of the Governor-Office of Management and Budget, and the Department of Finance to submit briefs or declarations over the government’s failure to pay judgments in connection with two lawsuits, including the wrongful death filed by couple Aguon and Cruz.

As to the issue of unbalanced budget, Lochabay said the constitutional amendment mandating a shut-down of all non-essential government services for failure to pass a balanced budget states: “The proposed balanced budget shall describe anticipated revenues of the Commonwealth and recommend expenditures of Commonwealth funds.”

Lochabay said nowhere in the amendment is there any requirement to pay down debt.

He asserted that a budget needs only to “describe anticipated revenues” and “recommend expenditures of Commonwealth funds.”

Lochabay said the current budget satisfies those requirements and is balanced pursuant to the Planning and Budgeting Act.

Lochabay said the court’s ruling in the Marine Revitalization Corp.’s case specifically authorized the trial court to order payment of funds appropriated for the payment of judgments ($20,000) in the operative budget at the of the MRC decision.

However, Lochabay said, Superior Court Associate Judge David A. Wiseman has already ordered the government to pay the $8,000 appropriated in the current budget to different judgment holders.

As to reprogramming issue, he said, the court is prohibited by statute from ordering the reprogramming of funds.

On the question whether a CNMI annual budget is unconstitutionally unbalanced if it does not specifically name the judgments owed by the government, Lochabay said naming the judgments without appropriating funds for payment would be useless.

He said the budget does not contain the names of creditors, judgment or otherwise, or amounts owed to them.

Lochabay said the only requirement for a balanced budget is that anticipated revenues be at least equal to recommended expenditures.

Lochabay said as the current budget balanced recommended expenditures with anticipated revenues, the Legislature would not be able to constitutionally pass a supplemental budget, absent an increase in revenues, because such supplemental budget would unbalance the budget.

Lochabay provided the court an update on the same issues in two other identical cases handled by Wiseman.

Lochabay said Wiseman rejected plaintiffs’ arguments that the 100-percent reprogramming authority granted the governor under the current budget must be used to satisfy outstanding judgments.

He said Wiseman further rejected plaintiffs’ alternative argument that CNMI courts have inherent powers, pursuant to the Constitution, to compel the Legislature to satisfy the judgments.

Lochabay said Wiseman’s order does not address plaintiffs’ arguments that the budget is unbalanced and unconstitutional because it does not make appropriations to fully pay the government’s judgment debt.

Lochabay said the government believes that Wiseman got it right, and urges Camacho to apply the same or similar reasoning in his analysis.