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Senate passes bill to give Port Authority more autonomy, allow five-year suspension to reallocate airport/seaport funds and restore employee hours
Summary
The Senate passed House Bill 24-17, amended (SD1), to permit the Commonwealth Port Authority to reallocate airport and seaport revenues for related activities, suspend 4 CMC section 21 74(c) for five years, and require reallocated funds be used first to restore employees to 40 hours per week.
The Senate passed House Bill 24-17, as amended (SD1), to amend 2 CMC section 21 74 and give the Commonwealth Port Authority (CPA) greater authority over finances, including a temporary suspension of a statutory provision to permit reallocation of airport and seaport revenues.
The floor leader moved multiple technical and substantive changes in SD1: replace language that removed certain text with language that suspends those provisions; reinstate language that had been stricken in section 2(c); add a new subsection allowing, for five years after enactment, reallocation and expenditure of income or revenue derived from airport and seaport activities for airport or seaport-related purposes; and add a suspension clause specifying that 4 CMC section 21 74(c) is suspended for five years after enactment. The amendment also requires that any reallocation of airport and seaport funds “shall be first used to restore the work hours of the employees to 40 hours per week.”
The floor leader explained senators had discussed the changes in committee and that CPA employees had not returned to full schedules after austerity measures; he said employees were working a 72-hour pay period recently and that restoring hours was intended to address turnover. He stressed the suspension is temporary and can be revisited after five years.
The clerk called the roll on the SD1 amendments and recorded eight members voting yes; the amendments passed. The Senate then voted on passage of House Bill 24-17 SD1. The clerk recorded eight members voting yes and the bill passed.
The measure amends provisions identified as 2 CMC section 21 74 and suspends 4 CMC section 21 74(c) for five years; the record does not show the bill—s effective date beyond enactment nor detailed budgetary estimates on the floor. The Senate did not record additional implementation steps beyond the text of the bill and the temporary suspension; the Senate indicated the statute would be reevaluated after five years.
