MPLT cites $66M investment, opposes 2 Senate measures

The Marianas Public Lands Trust reported a huge growth of over 150 percent in its total investment—from a starting amount of $26 million to $66 million as of May 2005—which it says is reason enough to oppose any constitutional amendments seeking to change how it handles its funds.

The MPLT highlighted this in a presentation paper for the Senate session on Rota Wednesday, saying it has managed its assets well and given “direct “ financial benefits to the community.

“The [other] direct financial benefits to the Commonwealth are how well we have managed the original contributions of principal received from Marianas Public Lands Corp.,” said MPLT.

It said it originally received $24 million for its General Fund and $2 million for its Park Fund from MPLC, the forerunner of Marianas Public Lands Authority.

Today, the General Fund has increased to $59 million while the Park Fund has risen to $7.4 million, posting a principal growth of 2.4 and 3.68 percent, respectively.

MPLT said the growth was achieved through buying of stocks in the U.S. and investing in the local market through housing and educational loans.

It said it has provided $10 million to the Northern Marianas Housing Corp. for long-term mortgage financing, benefiting some 144 residents.

It also invested in the APLE 501 program, an educational pilot loan program for Rota parents and students.

Most recently, MPLT said it provided the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. with $10 million guaranty to maximize its credit with Mobil for fuel.

Right now, it also entertains a guaranty arrangement with the Commonwealth Development Authority and NMHC to facilitate the Plumeria Estates housing project.

“We are always interested in receiving proposals to help the local community and our Northern Marianas descent beneficiaries. …Additionally, we are always willing to work with other agencies to benefit the Commonwealth,” said MPLT.

The agency is objecting to the passage of Senate Legislative Initiative 14-7, which aims to amend the Constitution to require MPLT to distribute its investment earnings to people of NMI descents.

It also opposes SLI 14-10, which requires the agency to commit $10 million for housing loans, to be administered by MPLA.

MPLT said SLI 14-7 would be “very costly to administer” as it requires MPLT to ensure an accurate registry of NMI descents every year.

“Plus the preparation of thousands of checks would take a lot of time and money to produce. The result would be annual payments to [those of NMI] descent of very small amounts of money,” it said.

MPLT said that MPLA is not the suitable agency to administer a home loan program, as proposed in SLI 14-10. Using MPLA for this function, it said, “is a duplication of efforts and would be unnecessarily costly.”

Authored by Sen. Luis P. Crisostimo, Senate Legislative Initiative 14-10 mandates that a total of $20 million be given to MPLA for home loans and business loans, each receiving $10 million.

The initiative aims to amend Article 6, section 5 of the CNMI Constitution for MPLA’s use of the money for home loans; and Article 12, Section 4 for the business financing program.

Under the Constitution, MPLT is mandated to receive the net land lease revenues from the MPLA and to invest this money in a prudent fashion. The investment income—interest and dividends—are to be funnelled to the CNMI General Fund annually.