Casino license fee remains a point of contention

Should it be $500,000, $5 million or $10 million? The casino license fee amount remains a point of contention among lawmakers now finalizing a popular initiative legalizing casino gaming on Saipan so that the question could be placed on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Rep. Stanley Torres (Ind-Saipan), co-author of the Saipan casino bill that the Senate rejected, said yesterday he is keen on supporting a $5 million license fee “and that could be good for 30 years or more as long as they still want to operate casinos.”

“That’s going to restore the 80 work hours,” he told said.

Because of a limited budget of $102 million in fiscal year 2012, the Fitial administration has implemented austerity measures that include unpaid holidays and a 16-hour work cut biweekly. Thus every two weeks, many government employees are paid only 64 hours instead of the regular 80 hours.

Rep. Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan) said he will continue to support a $10 million license fee, the same amount contained in his Saipan casino bill that the Senate also recently rejected.

He said he will not support a $500,000 casino license fee, which he thinks will not help restore 80 work hours every two weeks.

“If we have five casino licenses paying a fee of $10 million each, for example, we could have $50 million and that’s on top of the taxes and other revenues from the industry. If I am the only one drafting the initiative, I would have wanted it to be similar to the bill I introduced but we are a team here and we have to consider others’ concerns and proposals,” he said.

Demapan said he did not initiate the signature drive but he supports the idea. “I have done my part introducing a bill. I was hoping it would pass the Senate,” he added.

Rep. Ray Basa (Cov-Saipan) said the document they are working on will be the “cover letter” explaining to people the rationale behind the move to legalize casino gaming on Saipan.

“We need only about 2,000 signatures, but we will get as many signatures as we possibly can to show that a lot of people on Saipan support having a new source of revenue so that we can go back to 80 work hours, we can help the Retirement Fund and other government programs,” he said.

Basa and Torres separately said that among the proposals being discussed is the distribution of casino gaming tax collections.

They said under the proposal, which may still change in the next few days, 50 percent of the taxes collected from casinos will go toward helping the government pay its debts to the NMI Retirement Fund; 20 percent will go to medical referrals; another 20 percent will go to Saipan scholarship programs; and 10 percent will be at the discretion of the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation.

Basa, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, reiterated that unlike the House casino bills that the Senate killed, the popular initiative they are working on does not appropriate casino revenue to Rota and Tinian programs.

“Their senators did not vote on the Saipan casino bill, which would have benefited Rota and Tinian,” he added.

Basa also said the casino initiative is considering the gradual removal of poker parlors once a casino industry has been established on Saipan.

House floor leader George Camacho (Ind-Saipan) said another proposal on the table is to lower the casino license fee to only $500,000 instead of $5 million or $10 million.

“Members were asking whether this could help restore 80 hours, but there’s no final decision yet,” he added.

Senate Vice President Jude Hofschneider (R-Tinian) said that House members’ move to initiate a signature drive for a Saipan casino is “a step in the right direction.”

“That’s what the Senate has been asking them since the start-that Saipan voters should be the one to decide whether they want casinos on Saipan or not. If Saipan voters say yes, then we don’t have any objection to that because that’s their position on this,” he said.

Rep. Trenton Conner (R-Tinian) also said he respects some House members’ decision to go on with a popular initiative on Saipan casino gaming.

Gov. Benigno R. Fitial also supports a popular initiative to move the Saipan casino gaming proposal because it will bring in new money that the CNMI does not have. After the Senate rejected the bill, the governor had a word war with senators whom he called “stupid” for not approving the Saipan casino bill.

Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota), in response, called on the governor to be more respectful, adding that Fitial should instead do something concrete to help the economy besides pushing for Saipan casinos.

CNMI’s casino industry

In related news, Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos made a pitch about the CNMI’s casino industry during the closing ceremonies of a three-day business fellowship involving some 100 foreign investors.

“Along with state-of-the-art telecommunications linked by undersea fiber optic cable to worldwide facilities, the CNMI is the only jurisdiction among the other Pacific islands with an approved casino industry,” Inos told members of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International at Pacific Islands Club on Sunday night.

Tinian and Rota have casino industries, while Saipan voters have yet to be asked again whether they want a gaming industry on their island.