Gov. Eloy S. Inos signed into law Tuesday a bill appropriating future Marianas Public Land Trust interest distributions to meet the CNMI\u2019s obligations under a settlement agreement it signed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n
It comes less than 24 hours after the Senate on Monday approved HB 18-216, HS1 on first and final reading by a unanimous vote of 8-0, with Sen. Paul A. Manglona (Ind-Rota) absent.<\/p>\n
HB 18-216, HS1, which now becomes Public Law 18-71, instructs the Department of Public Lands to \u201cimmediately transfer\u201d at least $5 million to MPLT.<\/p>\n
MPLT will then loan $5 million to the CNMI government at an interest rate of not less than 7 percent per annum to be used to satisfy the Commonwealth\u2019s obligation under its settlement agreement with EPA.<\/p>\n
During the Senate session Monday, CUC executive director Alan Fletcher and legal counsel James Sirok said that in general they are supportive of the bill, save for a provision crediting the $5 million used to satisfy the government\u2019s agreement with EPA to settle outstanding arrears of the Public School System and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.<\/p>\n
The provision the CUC officials are alluding to is section 2 (d) of the PL 18-71, which reads, \u201cUpon notification from the Secretary of Finance that the $5,000,000 has been deposited with the Court Registry, CUC shall credit $1,738,940 for Public School System\u2019s past due utility bills and $3,261,060 for Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation\u2019s past due utility bills. The $1,738,940 credit for Public School System shall satisfy the Commonwealth\u2019s outstanding obligation under the Maintenance of Effort Assurance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fletcher said it doesn\u2019t consider the $5 million as payment for the outstanding debt of PSS and CHCC since the \u201cmoney goes directly to the court.\u201d He said the utility company cannot simply \u201cwrite off\u201d some of the government\u2019s debt just because it deposits $5 million that will be used for CUC projects.<\/p>\n
Under its settlement agreement with EPA, the local government is required to deposit over $22.8 million until 2018 to complete some stalled Commonwealth Utilities Corp. projects.<\/p>\n
Aside from the $5 million it must deposit by Dec. 31, 2014, into the U.S. District Court for the NMI\u2019s court registry, other court-mandated payments to settle the CNMI government\u2019s agreement with EPA are as follows:<\/p>\n
\u2022 $2,800,000 no later than Feb. 1, 2015;
\n\u2022 $5 million no later than Feb. 1, 2016;
\n\u2022 $5 million no later than Feb. 1, 2017; and
\n\u2022 $5 million no later than Feb. 1, 2018.<\/p>\n
HB 18-216, HS1 passed the House of Representatives last Dec. 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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