John Paul Sablan
IN response to the request of Legislative Bureau Director Perry John Tenorio, Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation Chair John Paul Sablan is drafting a local bill to reappropriate gambling revenue leftovers for the LB’s operations.
Without funding for the bureau’s operations this fiscal year, Tenorio informed Senate President Edith Deleon Guerrero and Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez that the following will be terminated:
1) Internet, landlines, and cellular phone services
2) Cleaning services
3) Repair and maintenance
4) Dues and subscription. Payments for professional memberships, including the CNMI Bar Association, the Association of Pacific Island Legislatures, and the National Congress of State Legislatures will be halted.
5) Interisland travel
Public Law 23-26 or the Fiscal Year 2025 Appropriation Act does not include funding for LB operations. Also, the remaining ARPA funds appropriated for LB were no longer available, Gov. Arnold I. Palacios told Tenorio earlier this month.
Of the $8 million ARPA funds for the Legislature, $3.5 million was allotted by the administration of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres to the LB.
Last week, Tenorio shared with Sablan a copy of a fund status report from the Department of Finance, identifying $59,491 in leftover poker and pachinko fee collections in 2018, and the unused $150,000 in exclusive casino license fees collected from Imperial Pacific International and appropriated for the LB’s generator.
In an interview on Wednesday, Sablan said he was drafting a local appropriation bill to reallocate a total of $209,491 in poker and casino license fee collections for LB operations.
He said these funds were originally appropriated for the purchase of a generator and the construction of generator house for the LB. However, ARPA monies were used instead to buy the generator and build a generator house.
Sablan said since the Legislature already has a newly installed generator, the $209,491 can be reappropriated for the bureau’s operations.
“We are hoping that it could last two quarters of the fiscal year, or six months. Along the way,” he said, “we can identify other funding sources to continue to support the operations of the bureau.”
In the government’s FY 2024 budget, $579,295 was allotted for the LB’s operations.
