Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 90 Part 1.djvu/321

 PUBLIC LAW 94-241—MAR. 24, 1976

90 STAT. 271

separate fund to be known as the 'Northern Mariana Islands Social Security Ketirement Fund'. This fund will be administered by the Administration, United States in accordance with the social security laws of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in effect at the time of such transfer, which may be modified by the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands only in a manner which does not create any additional differences between the social security laws of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and the laws described in Subsection (b). The United States will supplement such fund if necessary to assure that persons receive benefits therefrom comparable to those they would have received from the Trust Territory Social Security Retirement Fund under the laws applicable thereto on the day preceding the establishment of the Northern Mariana Islands Social Security Retirement Fund, so long as the rate of contributions thereto also remains comparable. "(b) Those laws of the United States which impose excise and selfemployment taxes to support or which provide benefits from the United States Social Security S^^stem will upon termination of the Trusteeship Agreement or such earlier date as may be agreed to by the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Government of the United States becom.e applicable to the Northern Mariana Islands as they apply to Guam. "(c) At such time as the laws described in Subsection (b) become applicable to the Northern IMariana Islands: "(1) the Northern JNIariana Islands Social Security Retirement Fund will be transferred into the appropriate Federal Social Security Trust Funds; "(2) prior contributions by or on behalf of persons domiciled in the Northern Mariana Islands to the Trust Territory Social Security Retirement Fund or the Northern Mariana Islands Social Security Retirement Fund will be considered to have been made to the appropriate Federal Social Security Trust Funds for the purpose of determining eligibility of those persons in the Northern Mariana Islands for benefits under those laws; and "(3) persons domiciled in the Northern Mariana Islands who are eligible for or entitled to social security benefits under the laws of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands or of the Northern Mariana Islands will not lose their entitlement and will be eliofible for or entitled to benefits under the laws described in Subsection (b). "SECTION 607. (a) All bonds or other obligations issued by the Bonds and other Government of the Northern Mariana Islands or by its authority will obligations, be exempt, as to principal and interest, from taxation by the United exemption. States, or by any State, territory or possession of the United States, or any political subdivision of any of them. "(b) During the initial seven year period of financial assistance provided for in Section 702, and during such subsequent periods of financial assistance as may be agreed, the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands will authorize no public indebtedness (other than bonds or other obligations of the (Government payable solely from revenues derived from any public improvement or undertaking) in excess of ten percentum of the aggregate assessed valuation of the property within the Northern Mariana Islands.

89-194 0—78—pt. 1

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