{"id":386564,"date":"2023-03-03T06:03:36","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T20:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=386564"},"modified":"2023-03-03T06:03:36","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T20:03:36","slug":"deleon-guerrero-ccc-gets-just-1-budget-from-govt-but-bill-wants-to-slash-our-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/deleon-guerrero-ccc-gets-just-1-budget-from-govt-but-bill-wants-to-slash-our-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"DeLeon Guerrero: CCC gets just $1 budget from gov\u2019t, but bill wants to slash our pay"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Edward C. DeLeon Guerrero<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Commonwealth Casino Commission board chair Edward C. DeLeon Guerrero said the CNMI government gives CCC an annual budget of just $1, but a Senate bill still wants to slash the compensation for CCC, which has him scratching his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not understand. Obviously I think politics has a lot to do with this particular bill,\u201d said DeLeon Guerrero during the CCC board\u2019s regular monthly meeting Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 23-26 seeks to amend the compensation of CCC members. Sen. Celina R. Babauta (D-Saipan) is the author of the legislation.<\/p>\n

Babauta stated in the bill that the compensation of the CCC exceeds that of many other instrumentalities of the CNMI government, yet, with the license of the sole casino licensee, Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC being suspended, the funding mechanism for this \u201cgenerous compensation\u201d is now effectively defunct.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind, DeLeon Guerrero said, that unlike other boards and commissions, no member of the CCC is authorized to have anything to do with the entity they regulate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have apartment on your private business, the entity we regulate cannot rent your apartment. If you have a business selling vegetables, you cannot go to the operator to sell your vegetables. We\u2019re not allowed to work for this company,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the CCC had previous discussions with the Legislature and extensive discussions with CCC\u2019s former legal counsel that during austerity and even typhoons, the casino is a 24\/7 operation.<\/p>\n

DeLeon Guerrero said the issue of financial austerity does not affect the CCC. \u201cThe issue does not affect CCC because, if there is austerity, the intent is to save money. But we don\u2019t have any money from the central government. We have $1. So you\u2019re not saving anything,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n

The chairman said CCC does not charge the government to pay the office and not even the power.<\/p>\n

\u201c But the thing is, we need to monitor, regulate the industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

DeLeon Guerrero noted that CCC employees have to be there not only to observe, but CCC staff have to be there in cases of disputes to help resolve matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, If you say OK, CCC, to save money you\u2019re closed but the casino will continue to open. \u2026How can they open when the regulators are closed? It\u2019s just it doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The chairman said that, regarding compensation, the law authorizes the CCC to basically establish its own personal rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis one [bill] has taken those positions out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Since the current law says CCC employees are not government employees, they are not entitled to insurance and retirement benefits, DeLeon Guerrero said.<\/p>\n

He said he will prepare a response to the bill that says they will not support this legislation in its current form.<\/p>\n

CCC commissioner Mariano Taitano said since they already commented on that bill during the previous 22nd Legislature, they will just make minor changes in their comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a recycled bill with some tweaking. It\u2019s almost the same things that we\u2019re discussing now,\u201d Taitano said.<\/p>\n

The commissioners also discussed during the meeting the need to comment on Senate Bill 23-06, that seeks to amend the Commonwealth Code to authorize the casino commission of each senatorial district to regulate the maintenance of the poker and pachinko machines. Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Tinian) is the author of the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commonwealth Casino Commission board chair Edward C. DeLeon Guerrero said the CNMI government gives CCC…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":386566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-386564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-budget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386564","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=386564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}