Over 100 bills to raise revenues, cut costs are ignored

More than 100 bills and initiatives aimed at generating revenues and cutting costs have been languishing in Senate and House committees, rejected or yet to be acted on by the 17th Legislature, which appears to be spending more time debating on legalizing casino gaming on Saipan and on other measures.

For example, House floor leader George Camacho’s (Ind-Saipan) revenue-generating House Bill 17-73, which seeks to lift excise tax exemptions for laptop and desktop computers worth less than $5,000, is languishing in the House after Senate amendments do not sit well with some leadership members.

Camacho, a freshman lawmaker, said the CNMI has been losing out on taxes from lower-cost laptops and desktop computers that have become basic consumer products among residents.

Many of these laptops and desktops cost less than $1,000, he said.

But when the Senate amended the bill to include a provision exempting tourists from the 30-percent gaming machine jackpot tax for winnings in licensed casinos to help entice them to visit and gamble in the CNMI, the bill has sat idle ever since.

Senate President Paul Manglona’s (Ind-Rota) three legislative initiatives to help the NMI Retirement Fund, including one that gives 25 percent of government revenues to pay debt to the pension agency, have yet to move at the House.

Manglona said the Senate hopes that the House, even if it does not agree to all the initiatives’ provisions, should at least take up or act on them rather than ignore their existence.

From January 2010, over 420 House and Senate bills, along with legislative initiatives, have been introduced and pre-filed.

Over 100 of them seek to cut costs or generate revenues, including a handful of House bills seeking to legalize casino gaming on Saipan and two of them got rejected by the Senate.

Gov. Benigno R. Fitial said that casinos on Saipan will infuse new cash to the ailing economy, and expressed disappointment with Rota and Tinian senators for recently killing a House casino bill for Saipan.

But Manglona reiterated that there are “99 other proposals on the table” besides casino.

Besides his initiatives to help the Fund, the Senate president also introduced three initiatives that seek to include the governor, lieutenant governor, lawmakers, judges and justices in work hour and salary cuts during periods of austerity. These positions’ salaries are constitutionally protected.

The House has not acted on any of these Senate initiatives.

With only about 10 months left before the end of the 17th Legislature, the only revenue-generating bill that has so far become law during this three-year term is one that gives incentives to travel agents for bringing in tourists to the CNMI and charges passengers from non-U.S. destinations a new $15 fee that will be used to market the CNMI as a tourist destination and recover costs incurred for enforcement of customs and quarantine laws.

However, the CNMI has yet to benefit from this law because its rules have yet to be finalized and implemented four months since it was signed into Public Law 17-58.

The ongoing spat between the governor and the Senate leadership is expected to make it harder to pass other bills.

Rep. Ray Basa (Cov-Saipan) said his foreign corporation tax bill could have been another major revenue-generating law, but the governor vetoed it over concerns that it violates the Covenant.

“I am introducing a similar bill that takes into account the governor’s concerns for rejecting the original bill,” Basa told Saipan Tribune as he pre-filed H.B. 17-288.

Rep. Edmund Villagomez (Cov-Saipan) said he hopes that the six bills pending at or rejected by the Senate would see the light of day.

These include a bill that seeks to strengthen penalties for minors consuming alcoholic beverages, and impose stiffer fines for persons or establishments that sell alcoholic beverages to minors.

The Senate version of his bill, he said, makes it difficult to enforce it. The House selected their members for the conference committee on Nov. 21, but the Senate has yet to name their conferees.

Another Senate initiative, also by Manglona, seeks to reduce the number of Superior Court judges to save public funds but this has yet to pass the House.

House Speaker Eli Cabrera (R-Saipan) introduced bills that would increase business license fees but they have since languished.

Rep. Stanley Torres (Ind-Saipan) said he will reintroduce his marijuana legalization bill for recreational and medical uses, adding that this is also a revenue-generating bill.