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CTC funding bill passes Senate
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Posted on Dec 04 2004
The Senate stamped its seal of approval on the House-amended bill allowing the Commonwealth Telecommunications Commission to increase its funding from .5 percent to 2.5 percent of the franchise fee of its clients, such as Verizon.
With one abstention from Sen. Pete P. Reyes, the Senate voted to pass House Bill 14-251, which is seen as crucial to the sale of Verizon to Pacific Telecom Inc.
The bill passed the House without the controversial “pass on” provision, which would have inserted language allowing telecom firms to pass on the increase to consumers. The Senate affirmed the House amendment.
Lawmakers acknowledged, though, that the deletion of the provision does not prevent Verizon from passing the increase to consumers.
According to Rep. Clyde Norita, it only means that the Legislature is not sanctioning the “pass on.”
The Legislature said a major issue in the bill is the funding for CTC, which had requested for $400,000 appropriation. The request, however, was not accommodated by the Legislature under the proposed fiscal year 2005 budget for the CNMI government.
House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial said that the passage of the bill “is the only issue pending” in connection with the sale of Verizon.
“This is the only settlement agreement that’s pending before the sale is approved,” he said.
Verizon and CTC earlier confirmed that the passage of the bill was part of the agreed items for the sale of Verizon.
HB 14-251 aims to amend the existing Telecommunications Act to restore CTC funding to approximately 60 percent of its previous level, to provide funding for telecom consumer advocacy, to set up a Universal Service Fund, and to provide CTC with discretion for spending a portion of its budget on items to be addressed in CNMI Universal Service fund regulations.
