House seeks DPS’ views on bill to register car rental companies

House of Representatives Committee on Tourism and Commerce chair Rep. Joseph Leepan Guerrero (R-Saipan) says they are gathering more information on a bill to mandate the registration of car rental vehicles and have these profit fees or fines go to funding such work.

Guerrero said the bill’s author, Rep. Vinnie Sablan (Ind-Saipan), requested they defer from entertaining the bill in their meeting Tuesday until they get the audience of the Department of Public Safety, “to give us an in-depth clarification of how private vehicles are being leased out or rented to tourism and other individuals.”

HB 19-125 seeks to, among others, require a registration fee of $150 for car rental vehicles, and require rental car license plates to display a symbol, word, or letter that identifies them as such.

Portions of the funding from this bill will go to the creation of general rules of the roads manuals, which will be written, in different languages for visiting drivers.

“When [DPS] are out there doing their work and they come across this, how do they treat it? We don’t know,” Guerrero said. “The intent of the bill is to clarify this so this private business should be paying [business gross revenue tax] same as car rental” companies do.

“Legitimate car rentals are footing the bill while the others are enjoying the profit of it. So the CNMI government is losing,” he added.

Guerrero added they deferred action to also request comments from the insurance companies, and are going to address the bill in their next committee meeting in April 12.

Sablan, the bill’s author, earlier said the government needs to have accountability of how many vehicles are being registered as rental vehicles, especially with the rise of rental vehicle companies on island.

As driving is one of the main attractions and recreational activities for tourists, Sablan said, the CNMI has to make sure that “our community is safe from inexperienced operators.”