Previous Story
Inos returns local bill for not being specific
Gov. Eloy S. Inos vetoed a line item from a recently passed bill by Saipan lawmakers, for not describing a “specific and public purpose” for its appropriation.
Inos returned House Local Bill 18-63, D2, approved and disapproved in part, in a letter to Saipan and Northern Island Legislative Delegation and the House of Representatives on Dec. 31.
The bill would appropriate $3.672 million from revenues to be generated from poker fees for fiscal year 2015. Inos vetoed line-item Section 2(B)(2) which set “$200,000 to be equally distributed to each Precinct.”
Inos wrote that all of the line items in the bill are for “specific and public purposes” as required by law, except for the vetoed line item.
He said this line-item “merely states that ‘$200,000 to be equally distributed to each Precinct.’”
He explained that “a precinct is not an entity or program upon which funds can be bestowed upon,” unlike, for example, the Saipan Higher Education Financial Assistance which was appropriated $3 million by the bill.
Inos also said that the item does not state a specific purpose or any purpose at all for what the expenditure authority is to use the funds for.
“This makes it impossible for the expenditure authority to determine whether the funds are being extended for a proper and public purpose as required by law,” Inos’ stated.
Because of these reasons, Inos returned the bill approved and disapproved in part.
HLB 18-63 allocates $3.1 million for SHEFA, with $100,000 of that for SHEFA operations.
The bill also allocates $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.
