Saipan delegation defies Teno • Over $800K in poker fees set aside for the island will dent CIP matching requirement

Saipan lawmakers yesterday stood pat in its decision to appropriate more than $800,000 in revenues sourced from poker license fees to local delegation matters, sending them into direct clash with the Tenorio administration.

Finance officials had warned against the move due to lack of funds, saying the money is part of the $1.3 million earlier set aside by the Legislature to match federal construction grants under the capital improvement projects.

But the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation maintained they were led to believe that a separate funding had been collected and ready for earmarking by members for the third senatorial district only.

Junking the request from the governor to reconsider their action, the legislative body voted against recalling House Local Bill 11-21 that would appropriate about $806,000 collected from the $2,000 local poker fees.

The fee — on top of the $6,000 license fee imposed by the CNMI government — has been since early this year on Saipan following the lifting of the cap on the number of poker machines on the island.

According to legislators, over 1,000 new machines have been registered by the Department of Finance since then, which would generate revenues to the municipal government at least $2 million.

SNILD chair Rep. Heinz S. Hofschneider said there has been a lot of “ambiguity” since the implementation of these laws that stipulate a separate fee of $6,000 and $2,000 for every poker machine on the island.

He added that there might have been an oversight on another law that set aside $1.3 million of the collections for CIP matching requirement.

“It’s up to the governor to make the decision (whether to sign the bill) because the members of the delegation saw the communication from finance department that the money is readily available for appropriation,” Hofschneider said in an interview after a brief session yesterday.

“Therefore acting on the identification of that particular fund, it is then available but then because of the oversight of PL 11-79, they felt the decision is not necessary the fault of the delegation,” he explained. “Let the executive branch deal with that.”

In a letter to SNILD last April, Finance Sec. Lucy DLG. Nielsen gave her blessing to the delegation to allocate the $806,000 that so far have been collected this fiscal year.

HLB 11-21 was passed by members early this month only after overhauling their initial estimate of $3.6 million which would have funded operations of the Saipan mayor’s office, assistance to the scholarship program of the Northern Marianas College and other local concerns.

Nielsen said that amount was not available, but SNILD provided $250,000 to the Office of the Mayor to keep 12 of its employees on board until September; $256,000 for land acquisition compensation; and $300,000 for the Northern Marianas Housing Corporation.

In another letter last July 13, the finance chief rejected the appropriation for the Saipan Mayor’s office. “We caution against funding personnel costs using a Special Revenue Fund because funding availability is based solely on collections,” she said.

“The Legislature may want to consider other sources of funding for this expense if they plan to continue funding the cost out of this special fund,” Nielsen added. “Apart from this, we have no objections to the other provisions in the legislation.”

According to Hofschneider, this last letter did not mention the unavailability of the funds so the delegation decided to keep the measure as is and wait for the governor to sign it into law or veto the proposal.