More than 40 employees of the Tinian Mayor\u2019s Office were laid off last Friday because the island municipality no longer has the money to pay them following the expected closure of Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino this month.<\/p>\n
Tinian Mayor Joey P. San Nicolas told Saipan Tribune that he had to inform more than 40 Tinian Mayor\u2019s Office employees that their last day was Friday, Sept. 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, I had to inform employees that their last day was Friday as we just do not have the funds to sustain their employment,\u201d he said. \u201cTaxes and fees collected from the casino is what allows Tinian to provide the community much needed supplemental assistance through programs and services\u201d<\/p>\n
Taxes and fees collected from the casino is also the source of funding for many municipal jobs, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor as long as the casino operations remain shut down, so does the stream of funding that flows into the municipal[ity\u2019s] coffers,\u201d San Nicolas said.<\/p>\n
The Tinian mayor said the crisis spawned by Tinian Dynasty\u2019s decision to first shutter its casino operations, followed by its hotel\u2019s impending closure by month\u2019s end, is having a cascading negative effect on the island\u2019s already fragile economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cTinian is already experiencing the downward spiral effect of the Dynasty\u2019s casino operation\u2019s closure. Star Marianas has laid off employees. Employees from the Dynasty who are able to transfer are moving. Signature annual tourism-related events are being cancelled. …I have employees coming to my office looking for any kind of work\u2026the list is only getting longer. This is what I have been fighting to prevent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
TCGCC mulls compromise deal<\/strong><\/p>\n The Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission is still considering a request that an interim casino license be issued to Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino\u2019s new owners.<\/p>\n In an email, TCGCC executive director Lucia Blanco-Maratita told Saipan Tribune that \u201cthe commission is still considering the matter and will act in accordance with the gaming law and regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n Chinese Strategic Holdings Ltd. chair and executive director Kwok Hing Wilfred Lam and its subsidiary, Tinian Entertainment Co., last week called for a compromise deal wherein, as a show of good faith, Blanco-Maratita and the commission would issue an interim casino license to Tinian Dynasty.<\/p>\n That would lead to the payment of an additional $100,000 investigation fee while the suitability investigation for Chinese Strategic and TEC\u2019s plenary casino gaming license is ongoing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe commission is bound by its regulation in its expenditure of fees paid in connection with the processing of a casino license application, which includes investigation fees, etc.,\u201d said Blanco-Maratita in her response to Lam\u2019s request.<\/p>\n Lam earlier said that they have already paid the $100,000 investigation fee as well as a $200,000 application fee.<\/p>\n TEC was given until Sept. 9 to deposit with TCGCC an additional $100,000 refundable investigation fee. This means that any unused portion of the fee will be refunded to the applicant.<\/p>\n According to San Nicolas, so far nothing has changed with regards to the TCGCC and Tinian Dynasty stalemate.<\/p>\n He said TEC is not willing to pay an additional $100,000 without TCGCC giving them an interim casino authorization while the investigation is being conducted.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, as mayor, there is only so much that I can do and that is to ask TCGCC and TEC to work cooperatively and expeditiously,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More than 40 employees of the Tinian Mayor\u2019s Office were laid off last Friday because…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[38,1339,1583,5882],"class_list":["post-211093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-saipan-tribune","tag-san-nicolas","tag-tcgcc","tag-tec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211093","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}