SENATOR Edith Deleon Guerrero has expressed concern about a new Saipan local law that appropriates $2 million for Northern Marianas College and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation.
The funding source of Saipan Local Law 22-8 is the casino license fee paid by Imperial Pacific International.
Deleon Guerrero wants to know if the funds still exist or if the new law is “deficit legislation.”
“I just want to go on record that I’ve…concerns and I’m asking for an accounting of the availability of these funds under Public Law 20-10 [or] the casino gross revenue tax collections,” she said.
It was reported that $8 million of the $50 million six-year casino license fee that IPI paid to the CNMI two years ago was available for appropriation, Deleon Guerrero noted.
“This means that this $2 million was paid sometime in 2019 pursuant to Public Law 20-10,” she said. “The governor issued his letter, which is stamped as Governor’s Message 22-119…for the appropriation of $8 million. The question is, Mr. President and colleagues, whether or not these funds do exist or is this deficit legislation?”
H.L.B. 22-24 was authored by Rep. Celina R. Babauta and introduced in the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation of which Deleon Guerrero is also a member.
The delegation passed the local bill on March 25, 2022, and it was signed by the governor on April 13, 2022.
Edith Deleon Guerrero
