Arnold Palacios
GOVERNOR Arnold I. Palacios on Friday signed House Local Bill 23-61, which appropriates $155,000 in casino license fees that the Rota Casino and Gaming Commission collected from the IH Group.
Authored by Rep. Julie Marie Ogo, H.L.B 23-61 is now Rota Local Law 23-15. It appropriates local gambling revenue as follows:
1) $105,000 for RCGC personnel salaries, including fringe benefits.
2) $15,000 for RCGC operations, equipment and supplies.
3) $15,000 for RCGC training expenses.
4) $10,000 for RCGC’s legal counsel.
5) $10,000 for an initial deposit in a special account for payments owed, including fringe benefits, to current and past RCGC members.
The new law also requires the Rota municipal treasurer or the mayor’s designee to establish an RCGC Members Payment Special Account. “This special account shall remain open for future appropriations until the past-due payments are paid in full. Provided, however, [that] the funds in the special account shall not be spent unless the RCGC chairperson and the Rota Department of Finance resident director certify in writing the name of the RCGC member, the time served in the commission, any payments already made to the member, and the balance owed to the member.”
Last week, RCGC Chair Viola Hocog-Atalig urged the governor to veto H.L.B. 23-61 because it “intrudes upon the Commission’s independent authority” to allocate funds.
But Senate Vice President Donald M. Manglona, who chairs the Rota Legislative Delegation, said her claim was “incorrect.” Although RCGC is the expenditure authority of the appropriated funds, Manglona said the municipal treasurer is the custodian of the funds who will ensure that the expenditure authority spends them according to an approved appropriation.
Manglona cited 10 CMC § 12103(a), which provides that: “All license fees and gambling revenue taxes derived under this chapter shall be local revenues to be expended for local public purposes, as specified herein. The Mayor of Rota shall submit a budget for consideration and approval of the Rota Municipal Council, which shall thereafter transmit said budget with any amendments to the Rota Legislative Delegation for consideration, amendment and enactment pursuant to the Local Law Act of 1983.”
