THE Commonwealth Casino Commission is not a high funding priority for the $515 million the CNMI stands to receive from the federal government through the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, Secretary of Finance David Atalig said on Friday.
However, discussions are ongoing on how assist the CCC through other sources of funding, he added.
Atalig noted that he did transfer $2 million from CCC to help with the CNMI’s Covid-19 response and mitigation plans early last year.
“I did promise to get those funds back to them,” he added.
The $2 million that will be returned to the commission should be sufficient for its operations, considering that the Imperial Pacific International casino is not in operation, the Finance chief said.
All CCC employees will be paid, he added.
“We’ll make sure that employees of the CCC are getting their payroll, but we also need to focus on what their priorities are knowing that there is no casino operating at the moment .”
Atalig said he has also been communicating with the CCC in terms of coming up with a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, that will allow CCC staff to assist the Division of Revenue and Taxation.
In late March of this year, the casino commissioners wrote to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, requesting financial assistance from the ARPA funding.
The commissioners noted the financial challenges that the commission is going through, namely the $3 million regulatory fee that it was supposed to have received from the lone casino licensee, Imperial Pacific International.
IPI, which is facing a number of federal and local lawsuits, can no longer afford to pay the fee.
IPI’s casino has also shut down due to the Covid-19 global pandemic.
