FLASHBACK – August 12, 2011

Teno confident on Congress’ support vs takeover[/B]

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio is confident the Northern Marianas will draw enough support in the U.S. Congress to block legislation seeking to take away local powers over the island’s immigration and minimum wage standards. “We would like to see Congress to consider that implementation of federal minimum wage and immigration would impact our economy,” he told reporters yesterday. Tenorio was responding to questions regarding his 10-day visit to Washington D.C., which included talks with key members and staff of the US Congress. He, however, declined to disclose what transpired during the meeting, describing it only as “fair.”

Commonwealth Ports Authority Executive Director Carlos H. Salas has expressed concern over a proposed measure seeking a waiver on passenger fees on the ferry between Tinian and Saipan because it interferes with the autonomy of the agency. Sen. Herman M. Manglona has filed SB 11-151 in an attempt to stop the ports authority from collecting the $5.85 passenger fees and assist the financially-beleaguered Tinian Shipping. The proposal was put forward after the CPA board rejected the appeal of Hong Kong Entertainment (Overseas) Ltd. board chairman Michael Kwan to lower passenger fees to assist Tinian Shipping, its debt-laden subsidiary.

‘It’s not for Legislature to grant waiver'[/B]

The authority that the Babauta administration is seeking from the Legislature so it could spend beyond the $193 million budget set for this fiscal year is not a power that the Legislature can grant. This, in a nutshell, is the reason why the House of Representatives turned down the request of the administration to waive the criminal penalty provisions of the Planning and Budgeting Act. With the waiver, the administration would have been free to go into deficit spending without fear of being slapped with a lawsuit. House Speaker Heinz S. Hofschneider made this explanation, even as the Legislature’s upper chamber passed Senate Joint Resolution 13-7 Thursday last week, granting the administration’s request.

Division of Environmental Quality deputy chief Antonio I. DeLeon Guerrero disclosed this, saying the division has heightened enforcement operations on anti-littering on Beach Road, and it would further intensify this island-wide. Guerrero’s statement came after another environmental agency, the Coastal Resources Management Office, reported that littering is becoming rampant on the island. CRMO’s Benny Pangelinan had said that even tourist sites such as the San Vicente cave and the Bird Island are no longer sacred as they have been defaced with trash that were illegally dumped in these areas.

NMI’s water program gets US funding[/B]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has allotted over $1.9 million to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. to improve the CNMI’s drinking water system infrastructure. Division of Environmental Quality director John I. Castro Jr. disclosed this, saying that federal funding has actually been accumulating for the past years. The funding comes from congressional appropriation through the 1996 amendments to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, he said. Earlier reports quoted a study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that Saipan alone would need some $91.45 million to carry out 22 projects outlined in the local water master plan. To include infrastructure projects for Tinian and Rota, the CNMI will need close to $150 million.

Three out of the last four months have seen dramatic drops in Saipan’s apparel factory sales and CNMI government user fee collections, according to figures from the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association and the CNMI Customs Service Division. Comparing sales totals and user fee collections from July 2003 versus July 2002, both dropped 20 percent. CNMI user fees totaled $2.60 million in July this year, compared with $3.25 million during the same month last year. User fees, computed at the rate of 3.7 percent of export value, totaled $2.26 million in June 2003; when the figure was reported at $2.61 million in June of 2002, a 13 percent decrease.