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House approves $800K for MVA
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Posted on Jul 08 2005
The House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill yesterday appropriating $800,000 to the Marianas Visitors Authority for its promotional activities.
Sponsored by minority bloc lawmakers led by Rep. David Apatang, House Bill 14-358 seeks to source the amount from the Managaha Island Landing and Use Fees that is currently held in trust by the Marianas Public Lands Authority.
The bill said that the appropriation shall be without fiscal year limitation.
The MVA, which also received $1 million from the Executive Branch last May, earlier lobbied for additional funding, saying it doesn’t have the money to undertake necessary promotions and advertisements to attract tourists.
Just recently, two tourism bills were signed into law authorizing the government to provide incentives to airlines and tour agencies to bring in more tourists into the CNMI.
The governor approved House Bill 14-338, which appropriates $2 million to the Commonwealth Ports Authority “to provide incentives to airlines so that they can remain competitive and defray some of the costs of providing service to the CNMI.” It became Public Law 14-74.
House Bill 14-109, which gives the MVA the legal authority to expend its appropriated funds for promotional activities in the CNMI and in major tourism markets, became P.L. 14-73.
