To Save Millions Cut House seats to 15

The number of seats at the House of Representatives should be pruned to 15 or even 12 in order to save taxpayers millions of dollars in government expenditures that can be used to fund other critical programs on the islands.

This was the suggestion of Senate Vice President Thomas P. Villagomez who broached the idea in light of the forthcoming conference in Dallas, Texas that will tackle re-districting of legislative representation across the country.

He said the result of the recent census should encourage CNMI officials to look into the composition of the lower house, particularly on Saipan, to shift the number of representatives.

At present, the House has 18 seats, including one each for Tinian and Rota. On Saipan, the biggest island, both Precincts 1 and 3 have six seats for each election district, while Precincts 2 and 4 have two each for a total of 16.

This is in accordance with the 1,000 persons per one seat set by the Legislature in 1992 when the House members swelled from 15 to 18.

The CNMI Constitution empowers the Legislature to increase the number of seats when necessary, but not to more than 20.

Too expensive

But having 18 seats now is costly for the government, Mr. Villagomez noted, and thus the government should consider changing the ratio of seats per population to lower the operational costs of maintaining the Legislature.

He suggested this could be trimmed based on the population shift, giving more seats to Precinct 1 and 4, and reducing those for Precincts 2 and 3 while maintaining one for each Rota and Tinian municipalities.

With the opening of homestead areas in southern part of the island, most of the islanders have taken residents in that area where it is now considered to have the largest population on Saipan.

A similar trend has also occurred in northern Saipan which must be given additional seats to represent a large number of people, Mr. Villagomez said.

On the other hand, population in Precincts 3 and 2, which used to be the prime residential areas here, has gone down tremendously over the years and should have their representation cut to half of what they have right now, added the Saipan senator.

Key decision

“It will be interesting to find out what is the position of the members of the Legislature, to maybe cut it down to 12 or 15,” Mr. Villagomez told in an interview. “That is something that has to be decided by the leadership.”

Noting the concerns of the taxpayers on the increasing costs of operating the government each year, he said this could be a “sensible” idea at this time of the financial crisis confronting the Commonwealth.

At least $4.1 million are being spent each year by legislators under their individual’s allocation — a sum that could be used for other needs of the people, said Mr. Villagomez.

If the number of seats in increase by 20 to meet the ratio in view of the population growth, this would mean additional expenses of $3.1 million annually. “I don’t think the community will be supportive of that,” said the senator.

“A lot of people are looking into reducing government bureaucracy. Maybe the number of House seats can be cut down and use the budget for the Legislative Bureau where we can hire more professional services,” he added.

He vowed to look into the idea when he attends the conference in Dallas scheduled before the end of this month where other U.S. states and territories are expected to discuss re-districting.

A measure will have to be introduced in the Legislature to set out the proposal which Mr. Villagomez admitted could be a battle of political will since no politicians could be willing to give way to eliminate his or her seat.