If Gov. Benigno R. Fitial would have his way, he\u2019d remove or reduce the proposed $10 million casino license fee. Some pro-casino House members, however, want the amount retained in House Bill 17-240, which was introduced during yesterday\u2019s brief session.<\/p>\n
Pro-casino members had hoped the bill seeking to legalize casino gambling on Saipan would be put on the calendar for passage but that didn\u2019t happen because of a 2pm event at the governor\u2019s office. <\/p>\n
Instead, the House will hold another session on Tuesday to pass the casino bill.<\/p>\n
Rep. Froilan Tenorio (Cov-Saipan) said the CNMI needs the $10 million casino license fee, adding that if investors do not have that money to pay for a casino license, then that\u2019s something odd.<\/p>\n
A casino license application fee alone is $250,000. Once the application is approved, a casino commission will require the investor to pay the $10 million casino license fee within 90 days. The license is valid for 30 years.<\/p>\n
Fitial said he will continue to recommend removal or reduction of the proposed $10 million casino license fee<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked them [to] make it easier for [investors] to come in and we make it difficult for them to leave,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While the bill is expected to pass the House just like the first House casino bill, it may be up for another rough sailing in the Senate. <\/p>\n
Fitial has this to say to senators: \u201cThis is something that the people need. They need relief and this is one of the few initiatives that I already discussed with the entire Legislature. We need to work together to realize this initiative in order to bring back economic recovery to the Commonwealth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Stanley Torres (Ind-Saipan), co-author of HB 17-240, said everybody has their own interest in the bill but concerns about the $10 million license fee could be resolved by Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be up to the other members if they want to remove the $10 million,\u201d said Torres, author of a local bill legalizing casinos on Saipan that Fitial killed because of its unconstitutionality.<\/p>\n
Rep. Joseph Palacios (R-Saipan) said he prefers that a $10-million license fee be retained in the bill. He said there is currently a proposal in Florida to build three casinos that require a $1.5 billion investment each.<\/p>\n
\u201cInvestors will consider that Saipan as part of the CNMI\u2014a U.S. soil and is using U.S. dollar\u2014will be a good place to invest in. They know money here is legitimate. Coming from a businessman that I know, maintaining the $10 million will be a guarantee that the investor has money. And the CNMI needs fresh investment for its people and its economy,\u201d Palacios said.<\/p>\n
Rep. Rafael Demapan (Cov-Saipan) and Torres, along with three other House members, formally introduced the 29-page HB 17-240, a few days after Saipan voters were polled on their views on casinos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If Gov. Benigno R. Fitial would have his way, he\u2019d remove or reduce the proposed $10 million casino license fee. Some pro-casino House members, however, want the amount retained in House Bill 17-240, which was introduced during yesterday\u2019s brief session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}