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Pre-filed bill would strip CNMI’s top officials of subsidized housing
Rep. Richard T. Lizama (D-Saipan) has pre-filed a bill that will remove taxpayer-funded housing for the governor, lieutenant governor, Senate president, and House speaker.
The co-authors of Lizama’s House Bill 22-69 are Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan), and Reps. Christina E. Sablan (D-Saipan), Rep. Sheila J. Babauta (D-Saipan), Rep. Vicente C. Camacho (D-Saipan), Leila Staffler (D-Saipan), and Denita K. Yangetmai (D-Saipan).
The bill proposes to repeal a law, which became effective on Dec. 29, 1980, that provides government housing for the governor, lieutenant governor, Senate president, and House speaker.
Historically, governors and lieutenant governors of prior administrations have availed of government housing but, according to Lizama in the bill, all these government facilities are derelict, abandoned, or have been converted to government offices.
In the absence of government housing, the Department of Finance has allowed the use of public funds to pay for utilities at the private residences of top elected officials: governors and lieutenant governors.
Lizama said there is no legal basis or public purpose justification for this taxpayer-funded payment of utilities at the private residences of these elected officials.
The lawmaker said that in the present economic downturn, as people of the Commonwealth struggle to recover from typhoon disasters and the impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the government is compelled to cut unnecessary costs and prioritize limited resources for essential needs.
“As the Commonwealth’s citizens bear the burden of paying for their own housing and their own utilities, so should the Commonwealth’s highest-paid government officials, and the government must live within its means,” said Lizama in the bill.
