Post by Logan on Feb 16, 2016 3:31:20 GMT -6
The ongoing delay of the 25 percent pension payments to CNMI retirees now shifts to the hands of Saipan lawmakers who have scheduled an emergency session today, Tuesday, to appropriate money from annual casino license fees allocated to Saipan to pay this pension.
The Department of Finance had asked the local delegation last month for some $1.8 million, “preferably from the Annual License Fees paid to the Commonwealth as mandated by the Exclusive Gaming License and allocated to the” Saipan, according to a letter from Finance Secretary Larissa Larson to Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation chair John Paul Sablan (R-Saipan) last Jan. 15.
Finance’s standing request was made nearly a month before the Settlement Fund returned a check last Friday from the administration of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres to pay the scheduled retiree pension, leaving thousands of retirees bereft of their expected payments.
The appropriation—set to be made today—is hoped to resolve the ongoing delay that has incited a blame game between Capitol Hill officials and a Settlement Fund that has questioned Torres’ constitutional right to reprogram money for retirees on the basis that this serves no “public purpose.”
Read more: www.saipantribune.com/index.php/solution-to-retiree-payment-delay-now-shifts-to-snild/
The Department of Finance had asked the local delegation last month for some $1.8 million, “preferably from the Annual License Fees paid to the Commonwealth as mandated by the Exclusive Gaming License and allocated to the” Saipan, according to a letter from Finance Secretary Larissa Larson to Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation chair John Paul Sablan (R-Saipan) last Jan. 15.
Finance’s standing request was made nearly a month before the Settlement Fund returned a check last Friday from the administration of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres to pay the scheduled retiree pension, leaving thousands of retirees bereft of their expected payments.
The appropriation—set to be made today—is hoped to resolve the ongoing delay that has incited a blame game between Capitol Hill officials and a Settlement Fund that has questioned Torres’ constitutional right to reprogram money for retirees on the basis that this serves no “public purpose.”
Read more: www.saipantribune.com/index.php/solution-to-retiree-payment-delay-now-shifts-to-snild/