If lawmakers from Tinian and Rota will oppose the Saipan casino bill while the business sector blocks the tax rebate reduction, Tenorio asked, “Where in the world are we going to get the revenue that we need to run the government?”
Tenorio, Covenant-Saipan, said residents of Tinian and Rota will lose their government jobs if the Senate doesn’t approve House Bill 17-55, the Saipan casino measure.
Six of the nine Senate seats are held by Tinian and Rota which both have casinos.
Tenorio said while he and other lawmakers are “doing all they can to find revenue sources for the government,” their critics are holding them back.
“Don’t these people have any common sense?” he asked.
“I’m saying all these things because we need revenue. There is nothing else in the horizon that I see would bring in revenue,” Tenorio said.
He noted that Tinian and Rota only generate $800,000 each annually yet the CNMI central government allocates over 6$ million each for the two islands.
“So why can’t they understand the need to increase the revenue?” Tenorio asked.
He said a casino on Saipan will benefit Rota and Tinian.
Yet they don’t seem to see this,” he added.
Once his bill is enacted, Tenorio said it may take at least two more years before a casino can operate on Saipan.
Former Rep. Tina Sablan, in an e-mail interview, said there is a lot of outrage and disappointment about the passage of the casino bill despite the fact the people had rejected it twice.
She said she would not be surprised to see a petition against it circulating very soon.
There are two petitions currently circulating to urge the members of the Legislature not to increase their discretionary budgets and to request the Office of Public Auditor to look into the Legislature’s use of discretionary funds in the past five years.
Budget woes
Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos, in a separate interview, said if the economy continues to decline, the budget will have to be reduced as well.
$132 million has been proposed for fiscal year 2011.
At this point, Inos said, “it is still a good estimate.”
But Speaker Tenorio said the public is still not aware that the FY 2011 budget passed by the House is insufficient.
“Believe me. The total revenue of the government will go down even further,” he said.
He noted that in the proposed budget, government employees will have their work hours cut, resulting in only four days of work in a week.
This, Tenorio said, will mean less income, less taxes and less spending.
He does not think the anticipated revenue will meet the proposed FY 2011 budget.
“We will be lucky that to have $120 million,” he added.
