Senate Vice President Donald Manglona, left, speaks during a session on Monday as Sens. Frank Q. Cruz and Dennis Mendiola listen.
THE Senate on Monday unanimously passed its version of House Bill 23-95, which would amend Public Law 23-12 to reduce to $13 million from $15 million the government’s line-of-credit from the Marianas Public Land Trust. The measure also pledges the public land interest income due to the government as security in case of payment default.
All seven senators present voted to pass the Senate version of H.B. 23-95. Sens. Jude U. Hofschneider and Paul A. Manglona were excused.
Authored by Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez, H.B. 23-95 proposes to amend P.L. 23-12 to allow MPLT to withhold the public land interest income distribution due to the general fund as security in case of any default in the payment of the loan.
P.L. 23-12 also authorizes a $15 million line-of-credit from MPLT with an interest rate of 5.5%. The amount will serve as “bridge financing” for capital improvement projects funded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. The reimbursements from EDA will be the source of payments to MPLT.
The Senate version of H.B. 23-95 allows the Rota and Tinian municipal governments to obtain a line of credit from MPLT for future EDA-funded CIPs.
The Senate substitute bill also reduces the line of credit amount to $13 million from $15 million while authorizing a $2 million loan for Rota and Tinian, at $1 million each, at a fixed interest rate not to exceed 7.5% to fund infrastructure projects on both islands.
According to the report of the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee chaired by Senate Vice President Donald Manglona, “After much deliberation, your committee recognized that the First and Second Senatorial Districts [Rota and Tinian] should be supported in their efforts to identify a funding source to address infrastructure project needs that were not considered [in the] original project proposal…submitted to EDA for approval, which resulted in the approval of EDA projects on Saipan.”
The bill now returns to the House of Representatives.
