Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 decision to veto a certain allocation in a recently passed Rota local law has prompted a Rota senator to express disappointment with the governor during a Senate session last Thursday.<\/p>\n
Sen. Steve Mesngon (R-Rota), who chairs the Rota Legislative Delegation, the governor had no reason to veto a specific portion of the bill as the language involved with the appropriation was identical to other legislations of a similar nature.<\/p>\n
Torres, in enacting House Local Bill 20-55 into Rota Local Law 20-08, vetoed a $70,880 appropriation for the Rota Legislative Delegation\u2019s operations as well as an additional $20,000 for the Grace Christian Academy Rota and the Eskuelan San Francisco de Borja.<\/p>\n
The local bill altogether appropriates over $1.4 million in funding from the casino license renewal fee under Public Law 18-56 to various Rota programs, agencies, and offices.<\/p>\n
Of the total, Torres vetoed $70,880 allocated to the delegation after explaining in his transmittal letter that it did not specify how the funds would be used.<\/p>\n
\u201cDue to the reservations I have regarding the provision\u2019s failure to delineate the particular purpose for this operational funding, and until such time that the purpose of this funding is made apparent, I must respectfully veto this provision,\u201d Torres explained.<\/p>\n
According to Mesngon: \u201cI am just so concerned [because] the governor vetoed this item when there is also local laws from the Tinian delegation [and] Saipan delegation, which [had] the same appropriation and language. I am very, very disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mesngon pointed out that some medical referral patients have approached the Rota delegation to seek assistance, which was the intention of the provision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not sure what happened to the governor, but he vetoed this provision [that] supports our community, especially the people of Rota,\u201d said Mesngon. <\/p>\n
Torres also vetoed a provision of the bill, which appropriated $220,000 for GCA Rota and Eskuelan San Francisco de Borja, since both schools are considered private. <\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026Local appropriations bills seeking to allocate public funds to private schools cannot be approved absent justification of a public purpose for which the funding is intended to carry out,\u201d said Torres, adding that provision failed to describe a specific public purpose for the funds and is therefore in violation of the public purposes statute, hence the veto.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026Although I agree with the intent of much of this bill and understand its significance in the sustainability and advancement of the lives of the people of [Rota], I urge the local delegation to revisit the matter and re-appropriate the remaining funds in consideration of the public purpose requirement,\u201d said the governor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 decision to veto a certain allocation in a recently passed Rota…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1677,67,4076,5495],"class_list":["post-272827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-eskuelan-san-francisco","tag-people","tag-rota-legislative-delegation","tag-rota-local-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272827","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}