{"id":369825,"date":"2022-06-06T06:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T20:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=369825"},"modified":"2022-06-06T06:01:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T20:01:00","slug":"25m-allocated-for-2nd-local-stimulus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/25m-allocated-for-2nd-local-stimulus\/","title":{"rendered":"$25M allocated for 2nd local stimulus"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
David DLG Atalig<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig said Friday that they have allocated $25 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding for the second Local Economic Impact Payment that will give $500 to each eligible filer and dependent in the CNMI.<\/p>\n

In response to a question during a radio press briefing, Atalig said they have allocated $25 million but are expecting to distribute over $17 million in all for this second stimulus program.<\/p>\n

He encouraged those who have not filed their income tax return and for those who are zero income filers to get their tax returns submitted.<\/p>\n

As to the concern by some people and lawmakers that issuing debit cards for the second stimulus will not help small vendors who do not accept cards, Atalig said just like in the first local stimulus, the reason for the use of cards is it is administered by the local government and they want to help local vendors.<\/p>\n

He said they encourage small businesses to avail of the stimulus by obtaining access to accepting the cards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to keep the funds here. We want to stimulate the Commonwealth\u2019s economy. We do not want to stimulate [the economy of] other jurisdictions as much as we can,\u201d Atalig said.<\/p>\n

Atalig said their focus is to help the local economy and, in turn, it helps the government receive business gross receipts, and then helps keep the money flowing within the CNMI\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres signed last week an agreement with Finance\u2019s Division of Revenue and Taxation regarding implementation plan for the second local stimulus.<\/p>\n

Atalig said they will be rolling out this stimulus program hopefully in the next two to three weeks\u2014or by mid-June.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so I\u2019m very appreciative of the staff at the Division of Revenue and Taxation for their hard work to make this happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Atlig said they are excited about helping the community with this stimulus rollout.<\/p>\n

He, however, reminded the public that this program is to help the community, local vendors, and local businesses get assistance they need because of the high costs of fuel and inflation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is also in lieu of a fuel voucher program. A fuel voucher program is only going to help those that probably [have a] vehicle. But this one here is even better than a fuel voucher program, because this is $500 for every taxpayer and their dependents,\u201d Atalig said.<\/p>\n

He noted that these debit cards have an expiration date and the funds must be used by Jan. 31, 2023,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the people to use the money now. Let them use it to help our businesses that need the assistance, and this will help them as well,\u201d Atalig said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig said Friday that they have allocated $25 million in American…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":369828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-369825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369825","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}