{"id":200067,"date":"2015-04-24T04:00:53","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T18:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=200067"},"modified":"2015-04-24T04:00:53","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T18:00:53","slug":"hocog-sb-19-21-will-not-take-away-retirees-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/hocog-sb-19-21-will-not-take-away-retirees-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"Hocog: SB 19-21 will not take away retirees\u2019 benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senate President Victor B. Hocog (Ind-Rota) said Senate Bill 19-21 does not intend to take away the benefits of retirees, and that the retirees\u2019 needs are still a priority.<\/p>\n

Hocog was the sponsor of SB 19-21.<\/p>\n

\"Hocog\"<\/a>
Hocog<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than 100 petitioners on Wednesday sent a letter to Gov. Eloy S. Inos, asking him to reject the bill.<\/p>\n

The petition letter contends that certain amendments in SB 19-21 can be \u201cdetrimental to the livelihood of retirees and beneficiaries\u201d who rely solely on retirement benefits.<\/p>\n

SB 19-21 proposes to reallocate and transfer $2 million from the license fee paid by casino licensee Best Sunshine International Ltd. to the Rota Municipal Treasury, thus changing the primary objective of the casino law, Public Law 18-56, the petition letter said.<\/p>\n

However, Hocog maintained that the intent of SB 19-21 is \u201cto transfer funds allocated for Rota and Tinian to their respective municipal treasury in order to effectively and efficiently manage, control, and account for its funds including the $2 million from Public Law 18-56.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained that \u201cthe $2 million allocated to Rota and Tinian each from the casino annual fee was negotiated after the retirement Settlement Fund Agreement was executed by the Executive Branch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The $2 million was not part of the Settlement Fund Agreement, Hocog said.<\/p>\n

The petition claims that the amendment to reallocate and transfer the $2-million fund to the Rota Municipal Treasurer changes the primary objective of PL 18-56 and this amendment deletes the mandate to pay the retirees first, as mandated by PL 18-56.<\/p>\n

\"erratum\"<\/a>\u201cWhen the casino bill was being negotiated, it was understood that the central government will utilize part of the first $25 million of the initial payment, and $10 million out of the $15 million subsequent annual license fee to cover the retirees\u2019 25 percent pension. I negotiated the $2 million for the benefit of the municipality and people of Rota, including the retirees from Rota. However, the $2 million was never intended to be used solely for the retirees\u2019 pension cut,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Hocog also maintained that \u201cI am cognizant of the needs of the retirees on Rota and I included language in S.B. 19-21 to ensure that the retirees\u2019 needs are satisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hocog cited Section 3 of SB 19-21 which \u201cprovides that the $2 million shall be transferred to the Rota Municipal Treasury and appropriated by the Rota delegation as follows: (1) supplement of the First Senatorial District\u2019s retirees and beneficiaries\u2019 pension until such time that the Commonwealth government is able to pay the entire obligation; (2) payment of debt service of municipal loans and\/or bonds issued by the First Senatorial District; and (3) for any local public purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hocog said the Rota retirees\u2019 concerns stated in the petition that was circulated regarding S.B. 19-21 \u201cwas based on misinformation and miscommunications.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawmaker also said if there are further questions regarding the matter, retirees or concerned residents are free to contact his office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senate President Victor B. Hocog (Ind-Rota) said Senate Bill 19-21 does not intend to take…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":200068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[256,1042,4114,1755],"class_list":["post-200067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-casino","tag-public-law-18-56","tag-rota-municipal-treasury","tag-sb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200067","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\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}