CPA: Bill would harm CPA, NMI seaports

The Commonwealth Ports Authority has reiterated its opposition to a bill that would waive wharfage on inter-island cargo shipping.

Previously passed by the House of Representatives, House Bill 14-309 is currently pending before the Senate’s Public Utilities and Transportation Committee, according to the Senate clerk.

In a letter to the Legislature, CPA executive director Carlos Salas asked both houses to reject the bill and to meet with the ports authority “to address the perceived problem and find a rational solution.”

He also urged Senate President Joaquin G. Adriano and House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial to take a second look at his March 17, 2005 letter, which contained CPA’s arguments against passage of the bill.

In that letter, Salas had noted that CPA relies substantially on income from wharfage charges to operate the ports.

Data show that wharfage fees comprised 53 percent of the Rota seaport’s total revenues in fiscal year 2004. Even with the almost $60,000 collected from wharfage charges, the Rota seaport suffered a $40,185 deficit last year.

Likewise, wharfage charges made up 50 percent or $91,804 of the Tinian seaport’s total revenue collection in FY 2004.

Salas maintained that taking away the revenue source from CPA would have adverse consequences upon seaport operations.

Among the possible results, he said, are workforce reduction, elimination of maintenance and repairs at the seaports, and a stop in power supplies.

Salas said that if police or fire services at the ports are curtailed or eliminated, federal homeland security requirements would be jeopardized “both with respect to funding and possibly permitting the port to even operate.”

He added that with the curtailment of maintenance and repairs, CPA would have further difficulty in procuring insurance coverage at a reasonable rate. He added this would make it harder for CPA to receive assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal agencies after typhoons.

Further, waiving wharfage fees could put at risk the revenue bonds covering improvements at the seaports, Salas said.

In a separate letter dated March 24, 2005, Port Operators and Users Committee chair Frank B. Camacho expressed concern about the possible consequences of the bill.

“It’s important to note that the Ports Authority is a self-sustaining public corporation. With the impending loss of income from the passage of subject House bill, the services that the port now provides such as port security, ongoing maintenance together with ensuing repairs, power usage and the like will, out of necessity, be reduced or terminated altogether,” Camacho said.