THE House leadership’s attempt to override two of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ line-item vetoes in the fiscal year 2022 budget law fell short of the needed votes.
Two-thirds of the 20-member House of Representatives — or at least 13 — must vote in favor of the override.
The vote on the motion to override the governor’s veto of Section 601 of Public Law 22-8 pertaining to the governor’s utility bills was 11 in favor and eight against. Rep. Tina Sablan was excused.
Those who voted yes were Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez, House Floor Leader Ralph N. Yumul, Reps. Edwin Propst, Celina Babauta, Sheila Babauta, Vicente Camacho, Richard Lizama, Corina Magofna, Donald Manglona, Leila Staffler and Denita Yangetmai.
Those who voted no were Vice Speaker Blas Jonathan Attao, House Minority Leader Angel Demapan, Reps. Roy Ada, Joseph Flores, Joseph Leepan Guerrero, John Paul Sablan, Joel Camacho and Patrick San Nicolas.
Reps. Attao and Ada attended via videoconference.
The vote was 10 in favor and nine against the motion to override the line-item veto of the provision that would have prevented the governor from making changes to his American Rescue Plan Act spending plan.
Those who voted yes were Speaker Villagomez, Reps. Celina Babauta, Sheila Babauta, Vicente Camacho, Lizama, Magofna, Manglona, Propst, Staffler and Yangetmai. Those who voted no were Vice Speaker Attao, House Floor Leader Yumul, Reps. Demapan, Joel Camacho, Flores, John Paul Sablan, Guerrero, San Nicolas and Ada.
However, the House passed by a vote of 15 to three, the motion to override the governor’s line-item veto of the proposal for the Office of Planning and Development to spend $50,000 of its funds to conduct a feasibility study on casinos in the Commonwealth.
Vice Speaker Attao, Reps. Joel Camacho, John Paul Sablan and Flores joined the House leadership in supporting the override.
Those who voted no were Reps. Leepan Guerrero, San Nicolas and Demapan. Rep. Roy Ada did not respond during the roll call.
To override the line-item veto, two-thirds of the nine-seat Senate must also vote for it.
Unfair, excessive
Citing the ongoing House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee investigation into the governor’s public expenditures, the House leadership said taxpayers are paying for the governor’s utility bills at his private residence and a commercial piggery in As Teo.
Rep. Donald Manglona, who chairs the House Committee on Ways and Means, noted the governor’s “excessive use of water and power at his own private residence.”
Manglona said the governor and lt. governor are entitled to official housing, but the government paying for the utility bills of the governor’s private residence “goes against the statute.”
“Just because past administrations have done it does not mean we should continue this trend,” he said.
Rep. Leila Staffler said it doesn’t say in the law that taxpayers will pay for the utility bills of the governor’s private residence if the governor chose to avail himself of the taxpayer-funded official residence. She said this practice by the governor of charging taxpayers for his utility bills at his As Teo residence should cease immediately.
Rep. Edwin Propst said the governor’s salary is already too high so the governor should not burden taxpayers with his own utility bills.
“We can’t turn a blind eye on this. The governor’s utility bills are quite high. We do know that the governor also ran a commercial piggery at his As Teo residence. It seems unfair that taxpayers would have to pay for that,” Propst said.
Rep. Richard Lizama said he has been with the military for 22 years, but he has never seen anyone provided with utility allowance. “There is no such thing as that,” he said. It appears, he said, that the governor has been enjoying unlimited usage of power and water and charging it to taxpayers.
Rep. Corina Magofna appealed to her “dear colleagues” to support the override. Just because it was done in the past doesn’t mean it’s the right thing, she said. “There should be a better way to go about it if that is what we’d like to give the governor. But we have to make it reasonable and okay for our people. I would like to respectfully ask, what does your conscience and principle say about this practice?” Magofna asked.
Right direction
As for the proposal to authorize the Office of Planning and Development to conduct a casino feasibility study, Propst, who chairs the House Gaming Committee, said there is a need for an independent, professional and impartial study of the market feasibility and regulatory structure for the gaming industry in the CNMI.
“We are in this mess with respect to Imperial Pacific International because the gaming industry started out wrong from the very beginning,” he said. Now, he added, is “the opportunity to learn from history and finally do this right.”
For his part, Vice Speaker Attao said such feasibility study should also include the casinos on Tinian and Rota.
Power of the purse
Rep. Sheila Babauta said if the House fails to override the governor’s veto of Section 802 (d) of the budget law pertaining to his ARPA spending plan, the Legislature would no longer have the power of the purse. If changes are made to the ARPA spending plan, she added, “how would we know if agencies are appropriately funded?”
Rep. Celina Babauta said, “We need to start acting like a separate branch of the government. I’ve said this before, the House should control the government purse.”
She said lawmakers want to “protect” the governor’s spending plan. “We are not changing anything. We are simply protecting his promises to the departments. So why did he veto this? What does that tell us?” she asked.
The motion to override the governor’s veto of Section 802 (d) was defeated: only 10 were in favor and nine were against.
Reasonable cap
After the session, the House minority bloc issued the following statement pertaining to the governor’s utilities:
“The members of the House Minority…elected to forego an override of the line-item veto of Section 6 of Public Law 22-08 and instead, will work on legislation to clarify the provision of official residences for eligible elected officials as well as the implementation of a reasonable cap on the amount of utility charges allowed per month.
“The Minority acknowledged that currently, 1 CMC § 8222 is too vague and needs to be amended to add proper safeguards. In particular, the Minority would like to explore provisions clarifying the use of private residences in the absence of functional government dwelling units, and the implementation of reasonable caps on allowable utility charges.
“At present, 1 CMC § 8222 currently states that the ‘Governor, Lieutenant Governor, President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are authorized to obtain government houses for their private and residential purposes for the duration of their term in such office.’
“However, the Minority acknowledged that for decades now, the government houses that were meant to be used for this purpose have either been condemned or classified as damaged and not fit for human habitation.
“As a result of this, the Minority supports updating existing law to ensure that adequate processes are enacted to govern how the provision of official residences shall be handled in the absence of suitable government dwelling units.
“In addition, the Minority supports the implementation of a cap on the utility consumption amount for each of these residences. Further, the Minority also supports adding a provision to reflect that any utility consumption charges higher than the appropriate cap will be considered as a personal expense and responsibility of the official occupying the residence.
“These are long-standing updates to the law that the Minority believes will help keep utility charges at a reasonable and fiscally prudent amount, and such guidelines, if enacted, will help control official housing benefits to current and future elected officials of the offices covered by the law.”
Rep. Corina Magofna appeals to her House colleagues to support the move to override the governor’s line-item vetoes in the fiscal year 2022 budget.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Donald Manglona speaks during the House session on Friday.
