Tinian municipal council adopts $4M-plus budget

The Tinian Municipal Council adopted yesterday a local appropriation totaling over $4 million.

This is the budget that is embodied in the Tinian Local Bill 15-1 that was earlier passed by the Tinian local delegation chaired by Sen. Henry San Nicolas.

The budget bill identifies the Tinian mayor, Jose San Nicolas, as the expenditure authority of the lump sum amount of over $4 million.

This measure taps the revenues collected from the casino operations on Tinian.

The Tinian Municipal Council, which convened a meeting to act on the bill yesterday, was reached but it could not give details on the issue. The council office said it could not release a copy of the bill without the consent of Council executive director Erick San Nicolas, who was said to be out of the office yesterday afternoon. It was also not immediately known if there was a public notice of the meeting.

In an interview yesterday, Sen. San Nicolas said the budget amounts to $4.1 million.

In a separate interview, Senate President and Tinian senator Joseph Mendiola said the amount totals $4.6 million.

A Tinian resident, meantime, said that the council passed a $4.92 million budget yesterday.

Mendiola said the council could only “concur” with the delegation’s action.

Meantime, Sen. San Nicolas dismissed fears of possible conflict of interest between him as chairman of the delegation and the mayor, his father, who has expenditure authority to spend the budget.

“Conflict of interest will never happen. Anything that needs to be decided is done by the delegation. I listen to the delegation members,” said San Nicolas.

Further, he said: “I have a personal commitment in my heart to do what is right.”

He said that he was brought up as a law-abiding citizen by his father, a former police chief on Tinian, and mother, who was a teacher.

Tinian community sources have expressed concerns about the apparent lack of priority on education and health care in the adopted budget.

“There’s no breakdown of budget. Where will it be spent? The casino law specifies that priority should be given to education and health care. Is it being done?” asked a resident.

Senator San Nicolas said that the bill specifies funding for the Tinian Gaming and Casino Commission. All other expenditures will be determined by the mayor, depending on the availability of funds.

He said that due attention is given to education and health.

He said the mayor as expenditure authority puts money in “supplemental assistance” for medical patients as well as for local scholarship.

“The public school system also requests the mayor. The mayor does not deny such requests unless there’s no available funding,” he said.

He said funding for projects depends primarily on casino revenue, which he said, is “unstable.”

The over $4 million funding, he said, is a mere projection for the year.