Saipan casino legalization up for House vote

Legalizing casino operations on Saipan and a reduction in tax rebates are among the bills that are up for voting this week’s House of Representatives session. Members said that support or opposition to these measures will again boil down to who has the most number of votes.

House Speaker Froilan C. Tenorio said his two Saipan casino bills and tax rebate reduction bill have the votes. “I never doubted that we have the vote in the House. No question about that. My question is always with the Senate,” Tenorio said in a phone interview last Sunday.

The ruling Covenant Party has seven members and four Independents aligned with them, while the majority has seven Republicans. On April 16, the Senate adopted Senator Pete P. Reyes's Senate Resolution 17-14, junking proposals to operate casinos on Saipan. The Senate adopted S.R. 17-14 on a 6-1 vote, with two abstentions. 

The House Committee on Commerce and Tourism chaired by Representative Edmund Villagomez  held public hearings on the two casino bills-House Bills 17-55 and 56-but no committee report has so far been released.

Tenorio said it's been five months since he introduced his bills in March but no report has been done. He said he does not mind whether only one casino bill is passed. He also introduced his rebate reduction bill, HB 17-50, in March. “I hate to say this but all bills must be moved out of committees within 60 days. I was told that the committee is working on merging my two bills but I introduced my bills March 21 and it's now five months,” he said.

But some Republican members of the minority bloc said they will not vote on the casino and rebate reduction bills until they see committee reports or until they hear from experts

Representative Ray N. Yumul said before voting on the tax rebate reduction measure, he would like to hear first from finance and audit experts about the proposal's impact on the CNMI economy. He said he has yet to decide on the casino bills, and hopes that a committee report would be released on the matter.

Representative Eli Cabrera, who was one of two Republicans who voted “yes” last week on the budget bill, said he will not vote on the casino bill because Saipan voters already rejected it.

Tenorio, at the same time, said he disagrees with the Fitial administration's position that any rebate reduction will not have an impact on the Fiscal Year 2011 budget. The speaker said the success of the Saipan casinos will benefit the entire CNMI. He said funds will be funneled to medical care, retirement, and education, among other things.

During the public hearings held by the committee, most of those who attended supported casino operation on Saipan but almost all of them want the bills to be amended.

In the November 3, 2007 elections, Saipan voters who voted “no” to the Saipan casino initiative outnumbered the “yes” votes, 4,721 to 3,492. The “no” to casino prevailed in all Saipan districts. At that time, Rota voters approved an initiative to establish a casino industry on the island. One investor has so far applied for and granted a conditional license to operate a casino on Rota.

On Tinian, only Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino has so far been in operation since 1998, while Saipan voters rejected the idea in 2007 elections, the report noted.