H.B. 17-188 will remove Northern Marianas College from the list of educational institutions qualified to receive ETC donations.
The bill will also require an educational institution to be certified by the commissioner of education as a school that primarily caters to the primary and secondary levels before it can receive ETC donations.
According to the bill, a taxpayer making an ETC donation must provide a documented receipt that was issued by the commissioner of education.
The bill states that all ETC donations will be received by the commissioner of education.
The secretary of Finance will then create an Education Tax Credit Account in which all donations will be deposited.
This account will be separate from the general fund.
The donations that will be deposited into the account will be available without further appropriation and without fiscal year limitation under the expenditure authority of the commissioner of education.
The bill states that it is the commissioner of education’s responsibility to distribute the funds equally to all qualified public schools and educational institutions according to their student population.
Deleon Guerrero, Ind.-Saipan, said due to “difficult economic times, policies, although beneficial, should reflect the current economic conditions.”
Norman Scott, principal of Calvary Christian Academy and president of the Coalition of Private Schools, told senators on Friday that some private schools who take advantage of the ETC program should be investigated.
“We cannot tolerate that, shame on anyone who takes advantage of this situation,” he added.
At the same time, he cautioned lawmakers in proposing amendments to the ETC law, which allows members of the community or companies to make donations to schools and deduct the amount from the taxes they have to pay the government.
Despite opposition from public and private schools as well as other members of the community, lawmakers passed a bill to suspend the ETC program. It is now with the governor.
Deleon Guerrero’s other bill, H.B. 17-187, will make sure that development projects beneficial to the community as a whole will be given priority funding before other “pet” projects.
His bill gives the responsibility of establishing criteria for priority developments on Saipan to DPW’s Technical Services Division.
According to the bill, the division will regulate a guideline wherein locally funded projects on Saipan will be funded and completed according to priority.
All local funds appropriated by the Legislature for development projects on Saipan, with the exception of capital improvement projects and matching funds, will be used for the projects on the priority list, the bill stated.
It added that it will be the Technical Services Division’s responsibility to inform the public of the necessary rules and regulations, including the priority guideline or criteria.
