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Priority list for land compensations revived
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Posted on Nov 27 2006
The House of Representatives has passed legislation that would restore prioritization of land compensation payments.
House Bill 15-192, authored by Rep. Joseph Deleon Guerrero, proposes to put right-of-way purposes, including public road construction, on top of the priority list in land compensation.
The bill goes to the Senate for action.
Public Law 13-17, or the Land Compensation Act, provided an order of priority for land compensation payments when it was enacted in 2002. But a subsequent law removed the provision, in a bid to treat all claims equally.
But according to Deleon Guerrero, this move tipped the balance between the need to compensate landowners whose property had been taken by government and the need to address critical infrastructure needs.
“[M]any capital improvement road projects are at a standstill as landowners still have not been compensated for their lands. In fact, millions of dollars were used to compensate wetland and ponding basin claims first. The government neglected to address critical right-of-way claims, thus continuing to leave many road construction projects in limbo,” he says in the bill.
Deleon Guerrero said that the Department of Public Lands should first settle claims involving private lands used for right-of-way purposes. When these claims have been paid, DPL could start on claims involving lands used for the construction of public ponding basins, and then wetland and other claims. (Agnes E. Donato)
