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Without written order, MVA budget to be cut
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Posted on Jan 06 1999
The Office of Management and Budget has informed the Marianas Visitors Authority that it will not be spared from the 13.4 percent budget cut in the second quarter of fiscal year 1999 unless Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio issues a written order exempting the tourism agency from the scheduled reduction.
“Just like everybody else, MVA will get a budget cut because we have not received any written order from the governor stopping us from doing it,” said Vicky Villagomez, OMB special assistant.
The governor has earlier pledged not to include MVA from the budget slash since it is already getting a reduction in the 70 percent share from hotel occupancy tax as a result of the continuous decline in visitor arrivals as a result of the Asian financial crisis.
A 13.4 budget cut means MVA will lose some $938,000 from the $7 million budget it should receive for fiscal year 1999. Due to shrinking revenue, the governor had slashed the CNMI budget for this fiscal year from $249.26 million to $216.75 million.
Representatives from the budget office and the Department of Finance gave MVA comptroller Al Santos the amount which the agency will receive for its quarterly allocation in a recent meeting.
Santos has expressed concern on the reduction because it will greatly affect the marketing plans of MVA to recapture its lost market share in Japan, the island’s main source of tourist.
MVA had already hired an advertising agency to help promote the Northern Marianas in Japan. Since the Asian crisis, the CNMI has been experiencing a double-digit decline in visitor arrivals and tourism officials are struggling to look for ways on how to arrest the plunge in tourism economy.
Earlier, MVA board chairman Dave M. Sablan warned that failure of the MVA to promote abroad would lead to the collapse of the half-a-billion-dollar tourism industry.
Finance Secretary Lucy Nielsen had explained that other agencies would have to absorb higher reduction if the governor excludes some government offices from the budget cut. This developed as the Finance Department finally released the $1.7 million it owes to MVA for fiscal year 1998.
