By Nazario Rodriguez Jr.
Horizon news staff

Delegate Joel Toribiong and Senate Floor Leader Alan Seid have requested Governor Yoshitaka Adachi to explore the possibility of forgiving owed rental payments to Koror State Government by lease holders.
The two lawmakers brought to Adachi’s attention about a policy contained in the newly signed annual national budget for fiscal year 2007 stipulating that all prior years’ balances owed by any State to the National Government prior 2007 should be forgiven.
Section 19 of the unified budget act of 2007 stated that an amount is appropriated necessary for prposes of monthly payments to Koror State for the rent of housing units in accordance with the Land Settlement Agreement executed on Feb, 1997.
It said that this is to the extent that a like or greater amount is first collected from the KSG for amounts owed to the National Government pursuant to provisions of law that require remittance to the National Treasury of 25 percent of all revenue derived from leases of public land in Koror in 2007.
The same section of the unified budget stated that all prior years’ balances owed by any State to the national government prior to 2007 should be forgiven and it further appropriate offsets of the revenues collected and payments made are to be recorded in a separately identified budgetary account.
Toribiong and Seid told Adachi that the new policy is a blessing and considered as capital financial benefit to KSG.
"Morever, it is our firm belief that this blessing endowed to us should translate into benefit to our constituents of Koror State," the two lawmakers said.
They said "we are all experiencing economic hardship and by instituting this policy, it will surely help out our constituents attain a better livelihood and businesses to prosper."
They added that it is only "befitting to first amplify this good policy to the elderly who are in arrearage of their lease payments."
"We are confident that you will come up with a suitable implementing policy to effectuate this program," they said.
The lawmakers said they foresee a need of all affiliated departments of KSG to coordinate in the implementation of this program, which they said is a reasonable action that should be conferred to the citizens of Koror State.