Override eyed on veto vs CUC privatization

Lawmakers are mulling whether to enact legislation privatizing the Commonwealth’s power system over the governor’s objections.

Rep. Victor Hocog, chairman of the House Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications, said yesterday he will move to override the governor’s veto of legislation that would have required the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. to sell its power system to the highest bidder.

Although he admitted to not having seen the governor’s reasons for disapproving the bill, Hocog said that an override is “imminent.”

“This bill is very necessary. It will address the power problems for the long term,” he said.

Hocog, who also leads the House Committee on Ways and Means, added that, with the government’s dwindling resources, the Legislature cannot guarantee that it can find money for CUC the next time the utility comes asking for financial help. “We are having problems with the budget. Austerity measures have to be put in place. It would be very difficult for the Legislature to come up with money to subsidize CUC,” he said.

Gov. Benigno R. Fitial vetoed yesterday a bill requiring the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. to privatize its power division, citing numerous deficiencies that he said would increase CUC’s costs or would push the rates further up.

One lawmaker, however, has said she will not support any attempt to override the governor’s veto. Rep. Tina Sablan, who opposed the bill when it was placed on the House floor for a vote, reiterated her objections.

Her main concern, she said, is the lack of a public comment period and the insufficient review conducted even within the Legislature before the bill was passed. A $250-million price tag, for instance, was proposed for the CUC’s power system without any professional assessment.

“That figure came out of nowhere,” Sablan said. “It started out as an arbitrary $500 million, based on little more than a guess. And then in a matter of minutes, during a conversation between legislators, became $250 million. That is hardly a responsible way to craft legislation for something as vitally important as the privatization of our utilities.”

She also took issue with the structure of the governing board, which the legislation proposes to reinstate at CUC. “While I have become quite weary of the governor’s abuses of power since he assumed control of CUC, I’m not sure that the answer to that would be a governing board that retains essentially the same structure—and likely the same deficiencies—as the last governing board that we had,” she said.

To pass a bill over the governor’s veto requires a two-thirds vote in each chamber.