LEGISLATIVE Bureau Director Perry John Tenorio is requesting the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation to “disencumber” the funds derived from poker and casino license fee collections and reappropriate them for the bureau’s operations.The fiscal year 2025 budget does not include funding for the LB’s operations, which amounted to $579,295 in FY 2002.In his letter to the SNILD chairman, Rep. John Paul Sablan, Tenorio mentioned Saipan Local Law 20-24, which appropriated $100,000 in pachinko and poker fees for the LB, and S.L.L. 20-26, which allocated $150,000 in exclusive casino license fee collection for the legislative building’s generator.These allocations are without fiscal year limitation, Tenorio said. He provided Sablan with the fund status report from the government’s MUNIS system, indicating that there is still a balance of $59,491 from the poker fee collections allotted by S.L.L. 20-24, and $150,000 from the $9.5 million casino license fee that Imperial Pacific International paid in 2018.The total available amount is $209,491, which Tenorio asked the SNILD to reappropriate for the LB’s operations in FY 2025.”Essentially, we have no available funds beyond those appropriated for personnel and utilities, making it increasingly difficult to sustain operations and fulfill our obligations without the necessary financial resources,” Tenorio said.
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