CNMI retirees face an indefinite delay in their 25 percent pension payments that some lawmakers tie to a \u201cshortfall\u201d that the Saipan casino law guaranteed when it mandated a $15-million annual casino license fee, an amount that falls short of the estimated $17 million annually needed to address the pension reduction, according to Rep. Blas Jonathan Attao (Ind-Saipan) on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were going to be short no matter what,\u201d Attao said in an interview on Saturday, a day after thousands of retirees failed to receive their expected 25 percent pension check. \u201cI don\u2019t know where the magic number of $15 million came from. Is it right? I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attao said he foresaw the issue coming to ahead and believes the situation could have been avoided if the legislature had acted on his bill, House Bill 19-21, which dedicated the entire $15 million annual fee toward payments to retirees\u2019 25 percent pension.<\/p>\n
In Attao\u2019s estimation, using the $15 million and then adding some $780,000 from e-gaming fee collection would have solved the shortfall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you put that together with the $15 million, it\u2019s full payment for the entire CNMI.\u201d<\/p>\n
Right now, the $15 million annual fee is disbursed as $2 million to Rota, $2 million to Tinian, and $1 million to Saipan, with $10 million to retirees\u2019 25 percent pension.<\/p>\n
The bill, though, would move casino money negotiated for Rota and Tinian to solve the issue, a move that Attao called an \u201cunpopular decision\u201d and what he believes has caused the bill, introduced over a year ago, to sit idle in committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I respect that, \u201cAttao said. \u201cThey negotiated. I respect the process how we got there, but this whole issue has nothing to with the different senatorial districts standing by themselves\u2014this is everybody in the CNMI.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bottom line is everyone is affected. It is a CNMI problem. We should work as brothers and sisters to help our people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe the retiree association were even given an opportunity to comment,\u201d Attao also said.<\/p>\n
In 2014, when the Saipan casino law passed, the CNMI took the first and fifth year casino licenses upfront, a total of $30 million, as a retroactive payment for retirees for payments lost from the October 2013 to July the following year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got 2nd, 3rd, 4th year left at $15 million. At the fifth year, we will have zero in fees because we already collected it in the first year. <\/p>\n
But Attao\u2019s bill attempts to cover this fifth year \u201chole\u201d by having the first year and last year, or year 40 of the casino license, cover the first $30 million forked upfront.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could have avoided this situation today. We could have avoided this if we had acted on 19-21. If we push it aside we will face this problem again,\u201d Attao said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a monster that keeps peeking back up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018For retirees, retirees but no action for them\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n House Bill 19-21 attempted to address the retirees\u2019 issues, Rep. Ramon Tebuteb (Ind-Saipan) said, because that was the \u201cwhole argument of the exclusive casino\u201d on Saipan. <\/p>\n But, \u201chere we are at 130-some bills [introduced in the House]. Here we are again. What is the leadership doing about it? We submit solutions and it\u2019s basically being ignored,\u201d he said, referring to Attao\u2019s bill.<\/p>\n A casino law amendment to clarify the powers of the Commonwealth Casino Commission and provide these regulators funding was passed since the time of Attao\u2019s bill.<\/p>\n But Tebuteb said the \u201cwhole argument when we were debating the casino law was that it was for the retirees\u201d and urged action on 19-21.<\/p>\n \u201c19-21 is getting older than Santa Claus,\u201d Tebuteb said. \u201cThere is that possibility of fixing things but our own elected leaders have a lackadaisical attitude because golf is more important than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Tebuteb, said, \u201cWe are all being blamed.\u201d<\/p>\n Saipan Tribune tried multiples times but failed to contact House Speaker Ralph Demapan (R-Saipan) over the phone for the House leadership\u2019s position on the issue.<\/p>\n Lawmakers were called and hammered by constituents over the surprise pension check delay.<\/p>\n Retirees who amount to over 3,000 people, with some 400 living outside the Commonwealth, are seen as a large voting pool.<\/p>\n Tebuteb also drew concern to the number of $15 million for the casino annual license fee.<\/p>\n Tebuteb said, during the time the bill was debated, a question was posed by then vice speaker Francisco Dela Cruz to the bill\u2019s author, current speaker Rafael Demapan on this $15 million number.<\/p>\n \u201cHow did the $15 million come about? Why not $5 million? Why not $50 million?\u201d Tebuteb recalled.<\/p>\n \u201cHe couldn\u2019t answer,\u2019 Tebuteb said of Demapan. \u201cBecause they were just ready to move on and pass that casino law.\u201d<\/p>\n Uncertainty<\/strong><\/p>\n The delay in the 25 percent pension payment came as shock to many retirees, many of whom first heard about the news through local papers on Friday, the day they were set to get their pension check.<\/p>\n Many in the families in the Commonwealth depend on the retiree check as subsidy on household income.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really affected us,\u201d a retiree, who resides in Kagman, told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n \u201cI was telling my husband last night, maybe I should go out look for a job because I don\u2019t know how long is this 25 reduction,\u201d said the retiree, 61 years old, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I don\u2019t know,\u201d she said, \u201cI\u2019m a sick person, I have health problems, I don\u2019t think I can guarantee to go back to work. I\u2019ve been working for so many years, and now [am] depending on this salary we are earning,\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI have already scheduled for what to pay,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought the Retirement [fund] was back to back to normal\u2026I just got myself a car. And now that it is reduced, I am worried. What happened? They won\u2019t approve my loan, if\u201d this continues.<\/p>\n She said her and her husband\u2019s plan was to reserve half of their paycheck to pay for the car. \u201cNow, I am worried, it won\u2019t be enough.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI took their words already that it is back to normal but then now without anything, we didn\u2019t hear anything,\u201d she said. \u201cI have a house to pay, a car, CUC.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYesterday morning, when the news came out, that\u2019s the time when we found out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CNMI retirees face an indefinite delay in their 25 percent pension payments that some lawmakers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[162,26,3126,194],"class_list":["post-220889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-car","tag-cnmi","tag-commonwealth-casino-commission","tag-house-bill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220889","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220889\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}