{"id":6231,"date":"2012-03-27T01:22:13","date_gmt":"2012-03-27T01:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newspaper.ctsi-logistics.com\/?p=6231"},"modified":"2012-03-27T01:22:13","modified_gmt":"2012-03-27T01:22:13","slug":"saipan-casino-petition-to-be-launched-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/saipan-casino-petition-to-be-launched-tomorrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Saipan casino petition to be launched tomorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>By Haidee V. Eugenio<br \/>\nReporter<\/div>\n<p>Saipan voters could start signing off on a local initiative to legalize casino gaming on Saipan on Wednesday afternoon. If it garners at least 2,500 to 2,700 signatures, the question could be included in the Nov. 6 ballot.<\/p>\n<p>The 22-page local initiative, which took weeks of drafting and redrafting, requires a $5 million initial license fee to be paid within 90 days after the license approval and $200,000 in annual license fee every year thereafter.<\/p>\n<p>Three casino licenses are available: two for an existing hotel with at least 250 guest rooms, golf club resort or resort, and one for a new investment of at least $100 million inclusive of a hotel resort or convention center.<\/p>\n<p>One other casino license is also available to a Northern Marianas descent corporation.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Jack Angello, a retiree and one of the individuals leading the signature drive, said yesterday that the public launching will be at the Carolinian Utt in Garapan on Wednesday at 4:30pm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want this to be transparent. As a retiree, I am concerned about the welfare of the NMI Retirement Fund and the welfare of those who are on 64-hour work biweekly. I want them to be restored to 80 hours. And this casino initiative will help us realize this,\u201d Angello told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n<p>Under the initiative, all funds generated will be available for appropriation only on Saipan and the Northern Islands.<\/p>\n<p>The initial license fee of $5 million will be used to restore 80 work hours biweekly for government employees living on Saipan. Of the remaining funds, 50 percent will go to the NMI Retirement Fund; 20 percent will fund the medical referral program for Saipan residents; 20 percent to the Saipan Higher Education Financial Assistance Board; and other programs and purposes as determined by the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation.<\/p>\n<p>Angello said those who want to know more about the casino initiative and want to sign off on it are invited to attend the public launch on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Froilan Tenorio (Cov-Saipan) is working on a separate casino initiative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Haidee V. Eugenio Reporter Saipan voters could start signing off on a local initiative&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6231","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\/6231","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}