Arnold I. Palacios
GOVERNOR Arnold I. Palacios on Friday approved House Local Bill 23-52, which appropriates $500,000 in amusement machine fee collections for the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.’s Health Network Program or medical referrals, other programs, projects and activities.
Authored by Rep. Blas Jonathan Attao, H.L.B. 23-52 is now Saipan Local Law 23-15.
The funds, according to P.L. 20-59, “are derived from the annual fees from the amusement machines within the CNMI.” The appropriation of the funds was suspended over the years “for the purpose of providing much needed resources to entities that were more in need during the Commonwealth’s tough times.”
Signed by then-Gov. Ralph DLG Torres in May 2018, P.L. 20-59 lifted the suspension after the government identified resources and found no more need to suspend their appropriation.
Attao’s P.L. 23-15 allots $500,000 in amusement machine annual fees as follows:
1) $200,000 to CHCC for the Health Network Program;
2) $150,000 for the CNMI’s participation in the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture in Hawaii;
3) $20,000 for the Northern Marianas Sports Association, which is sending a delegation to the 10th Micronesian Games in the Marshall Islands;
4) $65,000 “for engines for the Department of Lands and Natural Resources”;
5) $25,000 for the Capital Hill baseball field upgrade;
6) $20,000 for the Commonwealth Cancer Association; and
7) $20,000 for the Mariana Islands Nature Alliance.
