Inos, lawmakers try to fix Saipan casino bill together

Gov. Eloy S. Inos and lawmakers met Friday to go over areas of concern in the controversial Saipan casino bill that need to be amended should the governor choose to sign rather than veto the measure, including clarification of intent not to shut down existing casino operations such as Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino, changes in the timelines, and allocation of revenues.
The governor himself said Friday he’s not taking any position yet whether to sign or veto the bill until his next meeting with lawmakers on Tuesday, when a list of proposed changes—should the bill becomes law—is ready.

The joint leadership meeting comes amid public questions and requests for clarification from lawmakers, whom they said passed the bill without committee review and public hearing.

A list of the proposed amendments is now being put together by the House and Senate counsels and the Office of the Attorney General, as a result of Friday’s meeting between the governor and lawmakers.

Saipan Tribune sources said investors would still be required to pay a $1 million nonrefundable application fee within 15 days of the bill’s signing, but one of the proposed amendments is that the investor will no longer be required to make a partial license fee payment of $30 million also within 15 days of the bill becoming law.

There would be another 45 days from the payment of the application fee to pay $30 million in license fee, and another 45 days from that actual payment date, before a final certification of award.

Although there was a technical correction already made by the House, lawmakers and the governor want to make sure that the tax rebate program won’t be affected by the casino gaming bill.

Also among the proposed changes is to clarify the language that the casino bill won’t discontinue or disallow casino operations on Tinian and Rota.

Lawmakers interviewed, however, said proposals in Friday’s meeting are still “fluid” and could change as days pass.

Only one lawmaker who voted “no” to the casino bill, Sen. Frank Cruz (R-Tinian), attended the closed-door meeting.

The rest of those in the meeting voted “yes” to pass the bill. House Speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan) was also in the meeting with the governor, although the speaker was off-island when the bill passed the House.

The governor, in an interview, he and the lawmakers “went over the bill and I pointed out the major areas of concern. Some members also want more clarity with some of the provisions and so we basically agreed that those will be addressed.”

“The legal counsels will put together the language that will be needed if we need to amend it…We will meet again Tuesday to cover the final language and then at the time we will decide how we are going to go about it,” Inos told reporters in an interview at E Land’s announcement on Friday that the former The Palms Resort will reopen under the global hotel brand Sheraton.

Inos said the bill is not a “perfect” one, and is undergoing thorough review. The bill’s main author is House floor leader Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan).

The governor said: “A lot of the requirements will be done through regulations that the [casino] commission will promulgate.”

The House speaker, in an interview shortly after emerging from the meeting, said the public’s concerns are being taken into consideration.

“If the t’s are crossed and the i’s are dotted, then I think we can move to the next step but it’s safe to say that it would be through amendments, which means that the bill would go through. I think the governor is cautious. I guess he wants to see the amendments first,” Deleon Guerrero told Saipan Tribune.

Sen. Pete Reyes (Ind-Saipan) said a lot of options are under consideration, including signing the bill with assurance that it would be immediately amended, recalling the bill from the governor, vetoing the bill, or allowing it to automatically become law after 40 days without his action.

“But members, including me, recommend that the governor sign it into law now and then we make the amendments as quickly as we can so we don’t have people wondering what the content of the legislation would be,” he said.

The governor has 40 days starting on March 10 or until around April 18 to act on the bill, or the bill automatically becomes law without his signature.

A day before the joint leadership meeting, Reyes said he prefers that the governor “call both the Senate and the House of Representatives and address his concern and what needs to be changed, and sign the bill and we’ll amend it.” He said it would be “easier and faster that way.”

Rep. Christopher Leon Guerrero (Cov-Saipan) earlier hoped that the administration and the Legislature would come up with a “unified position.”

“And yes, there is now a unified position—and that is, to make the bill work. My guess is that the governor will most likely sign it but he wants assurance that the Legislature would amend it, and correct and clarify the provisions that are not clear or have problems,” he said.

Rep. Felicidad Ogumoro (R-Saipan), co-author of the casino bill, said if it were up to her, she would like to see the bill signed and then amended.

“I would like to make sure that we look at concerns raised. I’m also crossing my fingers that the concerns will be addressed,” she said, shortly after emerging from the meeting on Capital Hill.

Changes

The governor reiterated that he would like to see that portions of gross revenue taxes from the casino gaming operation be allocated to help subsidize the so-called LEAC rate for residential customers of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., thereby lowering utility rates.

“This casino thing is basically trying to rescue [the] Retirement Fund situation, but that benefits retirees only. We feel if we allocate portion of the gross revenue tax, then that would benefit everybody, every resident, retiree or not retiree,” the governor added.

Inos said the bill would still be called a Commonwealth legislation, although there were discussions to change it to an exclusive gaming license “within the Commonwealth.” The primary reason, he said, is to make sure that proceeds from the casino operations would also be allocated to Rota and Tinian and not only Saipan.

“But if the concern is that this bill would affect casino operations in the two [senatorial] districts; that is not the case,” he said.

Inos, in responding to media questions, said the new investor would have “exclusive” license to operate a casino only on Saipan, and won’t be allowed to build casinos on Rota and Tinian. But the exclusive Saipan casino license holder can build more than one casino on Saipan.

Moreover, the governor said the investor can also build the minimum 2,000 hotel rooms on more than one property, given that areas for building one big hotel on Saipan is limited.

“We don’t have the footprint but you could probably have three separate hotels as long as they all add up to at least 2,000 rooms,” Inos said.

The minimum required investment in the CNMI, however, will remain at $2 billion.