HOUSE Local Bill 23-22, which was introduced by House Minority Leader Patrick San Nicolas, is now Tinian Local Law 23-6. It will include Tinian’s Kastiyu agriculture homestead expansion project on the list of the beneficiaries of $140,000 in earned bond interest income appropriated more than two years ago by Tinian Local Law 22-2.
Signed by then-Gov. Ralph DLG Torres in June 2021, T.L.L. 22-2 appropriates the earned bond interest income collected on Tinian for the Tinian Marpo Heights and Carolinas Heights village homestead expansion.
The new law, T.L.L. 23-6, adds the Kastiyu agriculture homestead expansion in the allotment.
The measure, however, became law without the signature of Gov. Arnold I. Palacios following the 20-day deadline, according to Special Assistant for Programs and Legislative Review Amelia C. Shai.
According to the CNMI Constitution, “The governor shall have twenty days in which to consider appropriation bills…. If the governor fails either to sign or veto a bill within the applicable period, it shall become law.”
In her transmittal letter to the Tinian and Aguigan Legislative Delegation chairman, Sen. Karl King-Nabors, and House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez, Shai said the attorney general raised two legal concerns regarding the measure:
1) The availability of funds appropriated by T.L.L. 22-2, which was signed more than two years ago.
2) The Tinian mayor being the expenditure authority for homestead development that is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Lands.
Shai also said that the Office of the Governor “did not timely receive a certification of funds or update regarding the status of funds appropriated by T.L.L. 22-2 prior to the expiration of the 20-day deadline for the governor to sign or veto this appropriation bill.”
Patrick San Nicolas
