{"id":221209,"date":"2016-02-18T06:06:31","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T20:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=221209"},"modified":"2016-02-18T06:06:31","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T20:06:31","slug":"221209","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/221209\/","title":{"rendered":"Past political concessions wrangle efforts to ease pension shortfall"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The House minority bloc\u2019s Reps. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan) and Ramon Tebuteb (Ind-Saipan) at a Saipan and Northern Islands Legislature Delegation session on Tuesday. (Dennis B. Chan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The House of Representatives majority bloc voted down a bill yesterday that would have dedicated the entire Saipan casino annual license fee to fund payments for CNMI retirees\u2019 25 percent pension payments.<\/p>\n

House leaders warned that passing the bill would renege on commitments made to Rota and Tinian lawmakers who were essential in getting the casino law to pass.<\/p>\n

House Bill 19-21, authored by Rep. Jonathan Blas Attao (Ind-Saipan), sought to redistribute the current split of the $15 million license fee, split now as $2 million each to Tinian and Rota, $1 million to Saipan, and the $10 million to the 25 percent pension payment. <\/p>\n

This was an unpopular proposal among Rota and Tinian leaders, as well as the Saipan mayor who is a recipient of the $1 million split.<\/p>\n

But Attao and the House minority bloc believes a funding shortfall in the future is guaranteed and would jeopardize\u2014just as the current delay in the 25 percent pension payment\u2014the livelihoods of the retirees.<\/p>\n

Attao argued, during session yesterday, that a full $15 million to this pension payment plus e-gaming appropriations, 60 percent of which are dedicated to these pensioners, would have taken the issue off lawmakers\u2019 hands as opposed to \u201cBand-Aid\u201d legislation to manage the funding in the future.<\/p>\n

Attao argued that the casino law rode on the understanding that retirees would be taken cared of. Attao, referring to other House bills passed that day to prevent another delay of 25 percent pension payment, called these \u201ctemporary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t continue to react,\u201d Attao said, referring to the most recent retirement fund scare and similar issues over the past decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should act and move on,\u201d Attao told Saipan Tribune. \u201cI want the problem removed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attao\u2019s bill, however, was found unpopular among municipal mayors, and effectively killed yesterday largely along party lines. <\/p>\n

The 10 no votes came from the House majority, with nine yes votes from the minority bloc.<\/p>\n

Rep. Antonio Sablan (Ind-Saipan), chairman of the ways and means committee that has entertained the bill since March 2015, summarized comments the committee had received from the Saipan and Rota mayors who argued that the bill would \u201cunplug the machine\u201d of needed services.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people depend on what we do,\u201d Sablan said, reading from Saipan Mayor David Apatang\u2019s letter. The mayor\u2019s office \u201cneeds fund to accomplish duties to the public,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tinian Mayor Joey Patrick San Nicolas has yet to respond, Sablan said.<\/p>\n

Sablan drew concern to the \u201cspirit of cooperation\u201d among the three senatorial districts not seen in years past. \u201cThis one bill would go a long way to dissolve the strong coalition between the three legislative districts,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n

He argued that there were other remedies to address the 25 percent pension payments, noting that \u201cwe have yet to tap the funds\u201d from the Saipan casino\u2019s business gross tax revenues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI voted for [the Saipan casino law] understanding that without the support of the first and second senatorial districts,\u201d there \u201cwould be no casino, no revenue, no 25 percent [pension funding], no $15 million\u201d license fee. \u201cAnd for that, I cannot support\u201d the bill, Sablan said.<\/p>\n

Vice Speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan), for his part, noted he has not supported the casino over the last 10 years and his support in the 18th Legislature was \u201ca big sacrifice\u201d on his part but that \u201cthe biggest sacrifice\u201d came from Tinian and Rota.<\/p>\n

Island leaders knew that a casino on Saipan \u201cwould kill the industry on Tinian,\u201d Deleon Guerrero said. But despite that, Deleon Guerrero said, Tinian and Rota lawmakers, like now Senate President Francisco Borja (Ind-Tinian) and now acting governor Victor Hocog, came out to support and explain \u201cwhy this industry\u201d was needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere would be no public law 18-56 [the Saipan casino law] without their support,\u201d Deleon Guerrero said.<\/p>\n

A passage of the bill would be \u201creneging on what was\u201d committed to, he said, \u201cand for that reason alone,\u201d he could not go back and \u201cchange the terms\u201d on what was agreed to.<\/p>\n

Rep. Edwin Aldan (Ind-Tinian), for his part, said Tinian heavily relies on the \u201cleftovers\u201d of the casino license fee. \u201cWe\u2019ve used these funds for scholarships, medical referrals\u201d and the 25 percent pension payments for Tinian, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not generate revenue from our casino,\u201d he said, referring to the Tinian Dynasty casino closure last year. \u201cWe are lucky we have [the Saipan casino law] to support pensioners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Glenn Maratita (R-Rota) also said the bill you have a \u201csignificant impact\u201d on Rota. \u201cWe are at a very disadvantaged position\u201d economically, he said.<\/p>\n

The bill would \u201cdefinitely have an adverse affect\u201d the on operations of the municipal government, its employees, pending obligations, and medical referrals, Maratita added.<\/p>\n

Deleon Guerrero also attempted to address the accusations of the government\u2019s continued \u201cBand-Aid\u201d or \u201cpiecemeal\u201d solutions.<\/p>\n

He argued, pruning the terms the minority bloc used, that \u201call these bandages\u201d would support the 25 percent payments.<\/p>\n

The so-called \u201cpermanent solution\u201d of Attao\u2019s bill\u2014if they \u201cadded it all up\u201d\u2014would be some $2 million \u201cnot heading\u201d to retirees\u2019 payments.<\/p>\n

\u201c19-21 would be a net gain of $2.2 million,\u201d Deleon Guerrero said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll these bandages put together will more than make up the $2.2 million shortfall.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vice speaker also attempted to hand lawmakers a \u201creality check.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that even if the bill passed the House, that \u201cthe sacrifices of Tinian and Rota\u201d would \u201cnot be forgotten in the Senate,\u201d meaning it would not pass the Senate and not make it to the governor for signature.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of history behind here that cannot be tossed aside,\u201d Deleon Guerrero said.<\/p>\n

For his part, minority leader Rep. Ramon Tebuteb (Ind-Saipan) told reporters before he left the Legislature yesterday that he could not seem to find the \u201cspirit of cooperation\u201d that the House majority sought to defend in the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis \u2018spirit of cooperation\u2019 is not in the law,\u201d Tebuteb said, acknowledging that the House yesterday made political concessions over solutions.<\/p>\n

\u2018Constitutional obligations\u2019<\/p>\n

In an interview at his office, after his bill was effectively killed, Attao assured retirees he would \u201ckeep fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to fight and find ways that the retirees\u2019 issue is solved, done, that we get rid of it and that we move on to the future,\u201d Attao said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe future deserves a lot better than we are going to present them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Attao called the three bills passed yesterday a \u201cBand-Aid\u201d and largely depending on tax collections to help the pension payments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing permanent was the $15 million\u201d over 40 years, he said.<\/p>\n

Attao disclosed that $15.78 million is needed to fulfill the entire 25 percent payments.<\/p>\n

He believes retirees would \u201crather bite a shortage of $780,000, than a shortage of a couple of million.\u201d<\/p>\n

That would mean a total \u201ccut\u201d of the 25 percent pension payment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe constitution says you cannot cut retirees\u2019 pension. You cannot diminish them, Attao said. But, he said, the settlement agreement between the government and courts did exactly that, leaving the government to fork up this reduction, or the 25 percent, through the casino law and the rest through appropriations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Secretary of Finance today is the Retirement Fund. She is the board, she is the administrator, she is everybody, which is not fair for her,\u201d Attao said. \u201cShe is obligated to take care of the retirees.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd by not doing so,\u201d Attao warning against another fund shortfall or delay, \u201csome retiree might decide to file a lawsuit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attao said he is sure that a pension delay would rear in the future. \u201cIt might not be the next the year or the year after that,\u201d but \u201cdo that math\u201d and note that \u201cin 2019 [the casino law sets] zero fees collected\u201d because they took the first and fifth year annual fees upfront.<\/p>\n

\u201c19-21 had the difference\u201d to close this hole, Attao said.<\/p>\n

House leaders argued that changing the law to pay out the Year 40 of the fee, instead of Year 5, a possible \u201ccontractual issue\u201d with the casino.<\/p>\n

Attao said that was fine but \u201cwhy didn’t you find out? Why didn\u2019t you get the comments from the proper entities?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe three senatorial districts are obviously going to say no. But how about the 3,000 retirees? Zero comments,\u201d Attao said.<\/p>\n

Attao, during the session, had asked committee chair Sablan if he had sought comments from the Retiree Association of the CNMI. Sablan said no.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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