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Proposal on use by gov’t of public land funds filed
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Posted on Feb 20 2001
The House Committee on Judicial and Governmental Operations is now reviewing a legislative initiative which proposed to amend some provisions in the Commonwealth Constitution, particularly on the use of public land funds to pay private land acquired by the government.
The committee is also reviewing another provision in the proposed Legislative Initiative which assigns the Board of Marianas Public Land Trust as guarantor of such transactions.
Legislative Initiative 12-08 also seeks to add a new subsection to Section 6 of Article XI of the Commonwealth Constitution to allow the Office of Public Lands to appropriate public lands funds for debt service of a bond or other similar financial instrument issued for the purpose of compensating landowners with fee simple title for the taking of private lands for a public purpose by the CNMI government.
The proposed initiative also authorizes the Board of Marianas Public Land Trust to pledge the principal of the trust as a guarantee to a bond or other similar financial instrument.
The bond or any other form of payment will be issued to compensate landowners with fee simple title in exchange for private lands bought by the government, the addition to Section 6 reads.
The constitutional amendment, authored by Representative William S. Torres, was filed last Feb. 1 and will pass the House of Representatives if it gets at least three-fourths vote. (MR)
