GOVERNOR Ralph DLG Torres on Monday signed into law House Local Bill 22-30 which appropriates $254,500 for the Tinian municipal government and the Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission.
The funding source is the renewal of a license fee, along with other related fees, paid by a new casino investor, the Big Investment Group, which has tentatively scheduled the opening of its Tinian Diamond Casino for July.
The casino-hotel is at the “final completion stage” and will operate a ferry that will transport people between Tinian and Saipan, Variety learned.
Authored by Rep. Patrick San Nicolas, H.L.B. 22-30 is now Tinian Local Law 22-7.
It identifies as its funding sources $250,000 in a casino license fee, $1,500 in a casino service industry fee and $3,000 in a lapsed license fee from fiscal year 2021.
According to the new local law, the Tinian Mayor’s Office will receive $44,000; the Tinian Municipal Council, $10,000; Tinian Municipal Scholarship, $7,500; TCGCC Commission Division, $50,000; and TCGCC Enforcement Division, $142,000
The new local law at the same time noted that the identified local revenue “is insufficient to satisfy in full” all the personnel and operation expenses of the TCGCC, the Tinian Mayor’s Office, and the Tinian Municipal Treasurer up to the end of the fiscal year or Sept. 30, 2022.
So T.T.L. 22-7 included the following budget cut measures: reduction in work hours, reduction in wages, furloughs, reduction in force, reduction in expenditures for “all others,” and a combination of the aforementioned reductions.
However, “the reduction in work hours shall not apply to inspectors employed by the TCGCC-Enforcement Division.”
Patrick San Nicolas
