SENATOR Edith Deleon Guerrero has introduced legislation to disallow the payment of land compensation judgments by the Department of Public Lands.
Senate Bill 22-76 states that land compensation cannot be paid from the revenues generated from the management and disposition of public lands.
However, land compensation for the expansion of water and wastewater systems is authorized using American Rescue Plan Act funds under the CNMI 2021 Recovery Plan Performance Report.
Deleon Guerrero said she drafted the bill after reading the Marianas Public Land Trust’s latest annual report and subsequently realizing that ARPA funds have been set aside for land compensation.
She said DPL’s operational funds are primarily sourced from public land lease revenues collectively owned by people of Northern Marianas Descent, or NMDs.
She said her bill’s “savings clause provides protection for prior land compensation judgments and should not be affected” by S.B. 22-76.
“The central government should carry the burden of compensation for land, and not take the collective funds of NMDs derived from public land leases collectively owned by NMDs,” she added.
A member of the minority bloc, Deleon Guerrero said her bill will be referred to a Senate committee, and “the likelihood of this even passing under the 22nd Legislature is remote.”
“However,” she added, “this conversation needs to be addressed — NMD revenues are taken for other purposes [even though] a case law has already stated that land compensation cannot be paid by public land lease revenues.”
The senator was referring to DPL v. CNMI, decided by the local Supreme Court on Oct. 4, 2010. The high court stated that land compensation cannot be paid from the revenues generated from the management and disposition of public lands.
Edith Deleon Guerrero
