The Saipan Chamber of Commerce is opposing a legislative measure that seeks to increase employment application fees for nonresident workers to raise funds for the establishment of a technical school.<\/p>\n
House Bill 14-161 proposes to increase initial fees for employment and renewal applications by $10, which would raise the current fee to $235.<\/p>\n
The Chamber\u2019s Government Relations and Economic Development Committee opposed the bill, saying that businesses should not be made to pay for an additional expense.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also question the basis of the $10 fee and whether $380,000 a year is sufficient to fund a technical school,\u201d the Chamber said, noting that there are some 38,000 nonresident workers in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
The Chamber said the current rate of $225 is sufficient to process nonresident workers\u2019 employment and renewal applications. \u201cThe Department of Labor should only charge the actual cost it takes to process the nonresident worker documents.\u201d<\/p>\n
It suggested that the Legislature and the Public School System apply for educational grants instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would also like to see that more creative ideas are used to raise funds in an effort to increase vocational training in the CNMI. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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