Edmund Villagomez
BY a vote of 15 to 4, the House of Representatives on Wednesday rejected the Senate version of House Bill 23-95, which would reduce to $13 million from $15 million the government’s line-of-credit with the Marianas Public Land Trust.
Introduced by Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez, the bill’s original version would amend Public Law 23-12 to allow MPLT to withhold the public land interest income due to the general fund as security in case of any default in the payment of the loan.
P.L. 23-12 allows the CNMI government to obtain a $15 million line-of-credit from MPLT at an interest rate of 5.5%. The amount will serve as “bridge financing” for federally funded capital improvement projects.
According to P.L. 23-12, “Any reimbursements received by the CNMI Department of Finance/Office of the Governor from the United States Economic Development Administration paid or remitted to the CNMI Government for CIP project advances that are covered in the MPLT-CNMI Revolving Line of Credit shall be paid directly to MPLT as settlement for the line of credit herein.”
On Wednesday, those who voted against the motion to reject the Senate version of H.B. 23-95 were House Minority Leader Patrick San Nicolas, Reps. Julie Marie Ogo, Roy Ada and Thomas John Manglona. Rep. John Paul Sablan was excused.
Following the rejection of the Senate version of H.B. 23-95, Speaker Villagomez appointed Rep. Blas Jonathan as chair of the House conferees who will work with their Senate counterparts to draft a version of the bill acceptable to both chambers.
The other House conferees are Reps. Ralph N. Yumul, Marissa Flores and Vincent S. Aldan as alternative member.
The money that would be obtained from the proposed $15 million line-of-credit was supposed to be used for the completion of the Paseo De Marianas road construction, which is part of the EDA-funded Garapan Revitalization Project.
Variety learned that the administration had to reprogram funds for the completion of the Paseo De Marianas road project while waiting for the Legislature to pass H.B. 23-95.
Last month, the Senate passed its own version of the bill to allow the Rota and Tinian municipal governments to each obtain a $1 million line-of-credit from MPLT for their future EDA-funded capital improvement projects, thus reducing the line-of-credit for Saipan to $13 million from $15 million.
