HOUSE Local Bill 22-23 would appropriate more than half of the $1 million Saipan casino license fee for the Rota Legislative Delegation — an amount that exceeds the budget ceiling set forth by the CNMI Constitution, Attorney General Edward Manibusan said.
H.L.B. 22-23, which Rep. Donald Manglona planned to introduce during the Rota delegation session at 5 p.m. today, Tuesday, in the Rota mayor’s conference room, proposes to appropriate $1 million of Rota’s share of the Saipan casino license fee as follows:
• $200,000 for inter-island medical referral stipend for patients and escorts.
• $200,000 for medical subsistence allowance for Rota hemodialysis and terminally ill patients.
• $15,000 for the Rota Liaison Office.
• $50,000 for the purchase of a Department of Public Safety Rota vehicle.
• $535,000 for the Rota Legislative Delegation.
But in his letter to Rota delegation co-chair, Sen. Teresita Santos, the attorney general said the local bill “has a problematic provision,” referring to the $535,000 appropriation for the Rota delegation.
He said the appropriation to fund the delegation’s operational cost is an “end-run around” the constitutional cap on the legislative budget set forth in the CNMI Constitution.
The AG said each delegation is a component unit of the Commonwealth Legislature and may not incur expenditures beyond what is established every fiscal year in the annual appropriation acts for the Legislature.
In an interview on Monday, Rep. Donald Manglona said if the session pushed through Tuesday, which he doubted because Santos and Sen. Victor Hocog were still on Saipan, he would still introduce H.L.B. 22-23. But, he added, it must be amended to address the AG’s concern.
Edward Manibusan
