In February, Hofschneider offered House Legislative Initiative 16-4 which seeks to amend Article XII of the CNMI Constitution so that private lands can be leased from a maximum of 55 years to 75.
That same month, he introduced House Legislative Initiative 16-7 which aims to make a constitutional change on Article II to create a part-time Legislature to reduce taxpayers’ burden in keeping them in office.
Both initiatives were referred to the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations.
“Five months and you can’t do a public hearing on it or you can’t finish reporting out. I wonder why? Five months are excessively long for these initiatives to be reported out,” Hofschneider, R-Saipan, told Variety in an interview yesterday.
“It’s taking too long. I’m not going to sit around and wait for the committee’s action,” he added.
Rep. Rosemond B. Santos, R-Saipan, chairs the House JGO Committee.
Hofschneider said he has no option but to push for a popular initiative to make those constitutional changes.
A petition for a popular initiative must be signed by at least 20 percent of registered voters in the CNMI.
Hofschneider said they are now gathering signatures from village to village ahead of the Nov. 4 special delegate election.
The Attorney General’s Office already issued a legal opinion that the Nov. 4 delegate election is considered a federal election and not a regular general election, thus, popular or legislative initiatives cannot be included on the ballot unless the Legislature widens the definition of the CNMI election.
The AGO must turn over petitions to the Commonwealth Election Commission to verify voters’ signatures.
Hofschneider said their legal counsel said the Nov. 4 election can be considered as special election to ratify the proposed popular initiatives if the Legislature adopts a joint resolution designating it as such.
“We have started the drive in Tinian and in Saipan. The point is a lot of these issues are critical to our economic survival. Perhaps Article XII is a solution to rebound our economy,” he said.
People interested to sign the popular initiatives are welcome to visit his office on Capital Hill.
