WITH vote of 15 to 4, the House of Representatives on Wednesday rejected the Senate version of House Bill 23-95 that proposes to reduce to $13 million from $15 million, the line-of-credit with Marianas Public Land Trust.
The bill’s original version authored by Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez proposes to amend Public Law 23-12 to allow MPLT to withhold the public land interest income distributions due to the general fund a security in case of any default in the payment of the loan.
P.L. 23-12 allows the NMI government to obtain a $15 million line-of-credit with MPLT at an interest of 5.5%, to serve as “bridge financing” pledging the reimbursable funds from the U.S. Economic Economic Development Administration for capial improvement projects.
Those who voted against the motion to reject the Senate version of H.B. 23-95 were Minority Leader Patrick San Nicolas, Reps. Julie Marie Ogo, Roy Ada and Thomas John Manglona.
Rep. John Paul Sablan was excused.
Following the House’s rejection of Senate version of H.B. 23-95, Villagomez appointed Rep. Blas Jonathan as the chairman of the House conferees who will work with their Senate counterparts to draft a version of the bill acceptable to both houses.
The other House conferees are Reps. Ralph N. Yumul, Marissa Flores and Vincent S. Aldan as the alternative member.
The fund that would be obtained from the proposed $15 million line-of-credit with MPLT 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.
The Paseo De Marianas has been completed since a few weeks ago, and was opened to the motorists last week.
Variety learned that the administration had to reprogram funds for the completion of Paseo De Marianas while waiting for the Legislature to pass H.B. 23-95.
Last month, the Senate with only seven members present unanimously passed its own version of the bill. Sens. Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider and Sen. Paul A. Manglona were excused.
The Senate passed a version that would also allow Rota and Tinian municipal governments to obtain their own line-of-credit with MPLT, at $ 1 million each, for future EDA-funded CIP projects, thus reducing the line-of-credit for Saipan to $15 million.
The Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee chaired by Senate Vice President Donald Manglona recommended the Senate version of the bill. Manglona stated that “after much deliberation, your committee recognized that the First and Second Senatorial District be supported in their efforts to identify a funding source to address the infrastructure project needs that were not considered during the initial search for the original project proposal to be submitted to EDA for approval, which resulted in the approval of EDA projects on Saipan.”
