Saipan casino bill now law

Gov. Eloy S. Inos announced at yesterday’s Republican Party kickoff rally that he signed Friday afternoon the bill legalizing casino gaming on Saipan and assured retirees that their 25 percent pension cut will be restored “within 90 days,” drawing cheers and applause from the crowd of hundreds. A bill amending the new law will be introduced as early as this week to address concerns about some problematic sections of the new statute.
“Public Law 18-38,” the governor repeatedly said in his remarks at the GOP kickoff rally, with his running mate Senate President Ralph Torres (R-Saipan) also on stage, at the Susupe basketball courts yesterday afternoon.

But the 25 percent pension cut’s restoration, along with payments of other Retirement Fund obligations such as payment of withheld interest of withdrawn contributions, will still depend on whether or not a casino investor pays a $1 million nonrefundable application, and makes $30 million in partial exclusive casino license fee payment soon. The amendment bill changes some of the major timelines.

Inos said in a brief interview later yesterday that he signed the casino bill late Friday afternoon.

That was before heading out to his fundraiser and after his closed-door meeting with the Senate president and House Speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan). The speaker said yesterday he wasn’t aware that the bill was signed after their meeting on Friday.

As of yesterday afternoon, the administration has yet to transmit to the Legislature a copy of the new law, which reportedly has several pages of a cover letter that spells out the governor’s concerns about the casino legislation and why it needs to be amended.

“Basically we want to make sure that rebate is clearly restored. There’s some ambiguity in there [even with technical correction]. This one, we want to spell it out,” Inos said, adding that restoring the pension cut is “among many other things” for signing the casino legislation.

The governor, in his remarks in vernacular, also mentioned his desire to use portions of funds generated from the casino industry to help subsidize the so-called LEAC rate for residential customers of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. This will help lower CUC utility rates.

House floor leader Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan), main author of the casino bill, said yesterday he’s grateful for his colleagues’ support in approving the revenue-generating bill and for the governor for signing it, with assurance from lawmakers that they will amend it to address the concerns from the general public and government officials.

“Again I am respectfully requesting my colleagues in the Legislature to support the amendment bill [that] I will be introducing this week, and this amendment bill is a product of working together among the House, Senate, and the administration and upon listening to the public’s concerns,” Demapan told Saipan Tribune.

Demapan noted that the casino is just one aspect of the whole legislation, saying that the investor would still be required to invest a minimum of $2 billion on 2,000 hotel rooms and related facilities.

“I’m sure that if it’s well regulated, the casino industry will help the economy in a major way for generations to come. I hope investors will step up to the plate and start applying for an exclusive license fee,” he said in a phone interview.

The House and Senate passed the controversial casino gaming bill a day apart, about a month after Demapan prefiled it. The bill was not referred to a committee or went through public hearings. But Demapan said similar bills, including the last one shelved by the Senate late last year, underwent committee reviews and public hearings on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.

It was the first time in at least four years that the Senate passed a casino bill from the House. Casino gaming used to be legal only on Rota and Tinian, home to the only operating casino in the CNMI—Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino.

GOP kickoff rally

The Republican Party’s kickoff rally began with a motorcade yesterday morning, followed by a roadside waving and then the program proper.

At almost 1pm, GOP officers, precinct chairpersons, and the endorsed candidates started coming up to the stage for presentation to the public.

The candidates are led by Inos and Torres as the GOP’s official candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively, in the November general elections. They were followed by candidates for Precincts 1 to 5 on Saipan, and then the Rota candidates before calling the Saipan senatorial and mayoral candidates.

The Tinian candidates will be announced at a later date, but Attorney General Joey Patrick San Nicolas, who is running for Tinian mayor, along with Lt. Gov. Jude U. Hofschneider who is running again for a Tinian senatorial seat, and Sen. Frank Cruz (R-Tinian) were also present at the kickoff rally.

“This is a pretty good turnout,” former Commonwealth Ports Authority executive director Roman Tudela said of the crowd.

The governor himself said he’s “very pleased” with the turnout.

“I’m really happy with the turnout as you can see, people are still excited about what’s going on. A lot of these folks are volunteers and they showed up because they want to be a part of the solution. I’m also very pleased with the candidates working hard, with their families. So I feel good. I feel better than before,” Inos said.

GOP president James A. Ada said he’s overwhelmed by people’s participation in the kickoff rally.

On stage, after the governor’s speech, Torres also briefly addressed the crowd.

“We’re going to do the right thing,” he said. He responded “I love you guys and I love IT,” after a member of the crowd said “I love you.”

The House floor leader, meanwhile, said that “we’ve started the engine and we’ll start shifting gears.”

“This is a start and we’ll get to the finish line,” he added.

GOP officers also called on stage representatives of different sectors, including from the Carolinian community, Filipino community, Palauan community, and women representatives.

But one of the most commanding speeches was from Matthew Deleon Guerrero, representing the youth sector.

He said the youths are coming out to support the Inos-Torres ticket and the rest of the GOP slate because they are “the party of solutions.”

“We’re supporting them in this election because they want more solutions and less promises. We’re supporting them in this election because we want leadership and not avoidance. We’re supporting them in this election because we deserve solutions-driven leadership on the CNMI,” he said, and the crowd applauded.

In closing, he said the youths “aren’t just the future leaders of the CNMI; they’re the leaders today.”