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Saipan lawmakers OK bill giving $3.1M to SHEFA
The Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation on Thursday passed a bill appropriating $3.72 million for Saipan-centric activities.
House Local Bill 18-63, D2 passed on a unanimous vote of 19 with two absences. It appropriates $3,672,000 from the revenues generated from the poker fees to be collected for fiscal year 2015 for various purposes in the Third Senatorial District.
The lion’s share of the funds is allocated to the scholarship program Saipan Higher Education Financial Assistance, at $3.1 million, with $100,000 of that for SHEFA operations.
HLB 18-63 also earmarks $105,000 to patients of the Medical Referral Program who have already expended their $50,000 limit; $75,000 to the Saipan Little League Baseball Association; $50,000 for the Tipieew Cultural Village; $30,000 for the Saipan Zoning Office; $30,000 for the paving of a section of Mt. Tapochau Road; $20,000 for the 2015 Liberation Day activities; $15,000 for the 31st Annual Flame Tree Arts Festival; $12,000 for the procurement of two Port-A-Cool 36” evaporator cooler units; $10,000 for the NMI Crime Stoppers; $5,000 for the Agricultural Fair; and $5,000 for the Saipan International Fishing Tournament.
Saipan Little League was earmarked $75,000 for the hosting of the district ($25,000) and Asia-Pacific Regional tournaments ($50,000), while the monies appropriated for the Saipan Zoning Office will cover its enforcement and operations.
The Department of Community and Cultural Affairs, meanwhile, is expected to use the two Port-A-Cool 36” evaporator cooler units at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium, where players and spectators alike have long complained about the venue’s humidity.
The Medical Referral Office, for its part, will use the $105,000 as stipend for Saipan and Northern Islands patients.
The balance of the $3.72 million will go to operational funds under the expenditure authority of delegation chair Rep. Ramon Tebuteb ($15,000) and equally distributed to each precinct ($200,000).
The expenditure bill now goes directly to Gov. Eloy S. Inos’ desk for approval.
