The Rota Legislative Delegation through a letter notified the Department of Finance that they want clarity and a breakdown of their $2 million share in the annual Casino License Renewal fee as provided by local mandate.<\/p>\n
According to Public Law 20-10, the delegation is supposed to receive annually $2 million of the $15-million annual Casino License Renewal Fee. However, delegation chair Sen. Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) noted that the delegation did not receive the $1.43 million\u2014the final amount after reducing a previous obligation.<\/p>\n
Manglona in his letter noted that according to former finance secretary Larissa Larson\u2019s report on the delegation\u2019s finances submitted to Legislative Bureau fiscal analyst Dave Demapan, the delegation had $1.43 million available for appropriation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn March 2, 2019, acting governor Arnold I. Palacios vetoed Rota Local Bill 21-07, D@ because of lack of funding. However, $1.43 million of the $2 million allocated to Rota in fiscal year 2019 was never appropriated and should be available for appropriation,\u201d he wrote on the letter, addressing current Finance Secretary David Atalig.<\/p>\n
HLB 21-07 allocates $380,000 of the $1.43 million to hemodialysis patients, inter-island medical referral stipends and room accommodation expenses, medical subsistence allowance, and a contribution to the Flame Tree Festival for 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdditionally, prior to the delegation session wherein HLB 21-07 was passed, Rep. Donald Manglona (Ind-Rota), legal counsel Joe Bermudes, David Demapan, and I met with [Department of Finance\u2019s Ryan Camacho] to discuss the $1.43 million available funding for appropriation,\u201d Manglona noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is quite puzzling to have HLB 21-07 vetoed as your department\u2019s accounting records, [Camacho\u2019s analysis], and even your own March 18, 2019 letter to the House Ways and Means Committee\u2026state that there are funds in the amount of $1.43 million available for Rota local appropriation,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
Saipan Tribune reached out to Atalig. He noted that he would be issuing a letter responding to Manglona within the week.<\/p>\n
According to Manglona, instead of only appropriation $380,000, the delegation recognized that the amount is closer to $700,000, only seven months later.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis figure is only going to increase in the upcoming weeks and months,\u201d Manglona wrote. \u201c\u2026To add fuel to the fire, many patients are asked to delay much needed medical treatment because of the limited availability of rooms at the Rota Guest House and the lack of funding to house these patients at a hotel,\u201d he continued, adding that Rota patients are currently not receiving stipends on Saipan while seeking medical treatment for more than seven months since. The patients also do not receive any reimbursements relating to their return trip to Rota.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Rota Legislative Delegation through a letter notified the Department of Finance that they want…<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-309209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309209","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=309209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}