Froilan wants to give Saipan casino revenue to Fund

Rep. Froilan Tenorio (Cov-Saipan) wants to amend a controversial local bill seeking to legalize casino gambling on Saipan, mainly to give all business gross revenue tax earnings from the Saipan casino industry to cover the NMI Retirement Fund’s unfunded liability.

“When all the unfunded liability is taken cared of, then the business gross revenue tax earnings could be used for other things,” Tenorio said.

The NMI Retirement Fund’s accrued unfunded liability was at $619.7 million as of Feb. 28, 2011. This means for every dollar the Fund owes its beneficiaries, only about 36 cents is funded.

Tenorio, a former governor and speaker, shared his proposal to amend Rep. Stanley Torres’s (Ind-Saipan) House Local Bill 17-44 during yesterday afternoon’s House leadership meeting.

“I do not want taxpayers to be burdened with paying for the government’s pension program. It can be covered by having the casino industry pay for the Fund’s unfunded liability. …Who knows, six years from now, retirees won’t be able to receive pension checks if we don’t do something about it now,” he said.

Tenorio said he has other amendments to the bill, including those pertaining to the allowable number of casino operators.

Rep. Joseph Palacios (R-Saipan), chairman of the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegations’ Committee on Judiciary and Government Investigations, which is reviewing the local casino bill, said they will consider proposed amendments to the measure before they issue a report on the bill.

Palacios’ committee and the delegation’s Ways and Means Committee recently wrapped up public hearings on the bill.

Tenorio’s former House bill legalizing casinos on Saipan passed the House, only to be killed by the Senate. The Senate wants Saipan voters to again decide whether to allow casinos on Saipan.

This prompted Torres to introduce a local bill to legalize casino gambling, so that the measure doesn’t have to go through the Senate.

But the Senate leadership said it will be taking the matter to court if and when the Saipan delegation passes the local casino bill, which it describes as “unconstitutional.”

But the Senate leadership is also considering support for the submission of a certified question to the court on the constitutionality of the casino bill.