Tinian mayor troubled over initiative results

Tinian Mayor Francisco Borja blamed politics for the defeat of the casino initiative, saying he was distraught over the election results that voted down the local measure amending the 10-year old casino gaming act in the island municipality.

“It is a shame that this issue became a political issue. There was no reason that we could not work together on this to pass this for the people,” he said in a statement.

Two weeks ago the people of Tinian voted down the proposed initiative changes to the 1989 Tinian Casino Gaming Initiative with a vote of 499 for and 403 against. As a popular initiative, the proposed amendments needed 689 votes to pass.

The proposed changes included splitting the gaming tax into two brackets, one for regular customers at 12 percent (unchanged) and one for high rollers at eight percent (new).

The changes also encompassed other amendments such as lowering the gaming license from $500,000.00 to $50,000.00, lowering the application fee from $200,000.00 to $5,000.00, allowing the casino to accept industry standard credit, lowering the age of casino employees from 21 to 18, limiting the terms of Commissioners to only 2 terms as well as 20 plus other technical amendments.

“We gave every opportunity to the other party but they constantly refused to discuss the issue with us. By refusing to talk to us, they failed their followers by not being informed on the issue,” said Borja.

Tinian officials spoke to economists, Las Vegas consultants, New Jersey consultants, Las Vegas CEO’s and debated the issues. “We came to the conclusion that our gaming initiative is outdated and it needed to be changed,” he said.

“Even New Jersey, the very gaming jurisdiction that we copied our initiative after, has changed their gaming regulations. Now because of politics and shortsightedness, Tinian will have to remain in the dark ages with our outdated initiative,” added Borja.

According to the statement, the Mayor’s Economic and Transportation Task force conducted several public education fora on the proposed amendments at the Tinian Multipurpose Gym and at all government offices.

Booklets and flyers describing the changes and reasons were also produced and dispersed throughout the public for comment. A leadership meeting was also held at the Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino in which the Tinian Municipal Council, Tinian Joint Delegation, Tinian Gaming Control Commission and the Mayor all voted unanimously to approve the proposed amendments

Hard work

“My Economic and Transportation Task force worked very hard to educate the public. They tried numerous times to meet with the other party to discuss the issues but every request for a meeting was declined,” said the mayor.

“I don’t know why they refused to meet with us, as leaders or potential leaders, they need to know the issues of the people. A leader does not arbitrarily make a decision based on hearsay; they study the issues and make a rational choice.”

Borja added: “My belief is that they had no relevant issues with the changes and just wanted to politicize the initiative. As a result they sacrificed the people of Tinian and our economy.”

When asked what the mayor will do next regarding the initiative, he said that he “will not stop here and I will continue to fight for the amendments and I look forward to placing it on the ballot for the upcoming general election.”

“I still welcome the other party to work with us on this issue. As I have always said. this is not a Republican or Democrat issue, this is a Tinian issue. We must work together for the benefit of Tinian. I will be waiting.”

The Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino was the last casino license issued in the Tinian gaming jurisdiction. Since 1995 the Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission has not received any new gaming applications. Tinian remains one of the most expensive gaming jurisdictions in the world.