{"id":316740,"date":"2020-01-31T06:03:57","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T20:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=316740"},"modified":"2020-01-31T06:03:57","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T20:03:57","slug":"economic-impact-in-the-crosshairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/economic-impact-in-the-crosshairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic impact in the crosshairs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Members of the House of Representatives hold an emergency meeting yesterday at the House chamber on Capital Hill to discuss the State of Significant Emergency declaration of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres. (IVA MAURIN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 declaration of a significant state of emergency in the CNMI, the House of Representatives had an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss preparations for possible budget cuts and the impact on the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a discussion, an informative meeting to make sure that all the members are aware of the situation,\u201d House Speaker Blas Jonathan Attao (R-Saipan) said in an interview. \u201cThe main thing is we\u2019ve requested, through the governor, to the United States to try to stop the flights from specific destinations.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the economic side, it was also intended to make sure that that the legislators are prepared to work on bills that would produce economic activity or generate revenue for the islands, Attao added.<\/p>\n

Torres earlier stated that with the Department of Finance and the Office of Management and Budget already making assessments based on the reduced tourist arrivals from China, the administration will be determining with the Legislature the potential impact on the fiscal year 2020 budget, as well as projections for the fiscal year 2021 budget.<\/p>\n

Across the board<\/p>\n

When asked by Rep. Joel Camacho (R-Saipan) about revising the 2020 budget once the numbers are in, the House speaker said there are two possible options: revisiting the current budget and changing the numbers, or implementing an across-the-board budget cut.<\/p>\n

It is \u201ceasier to do the across-the-board,\u201d Attao added. \u201cIt\u2019s going to affect every single line item with a budget. That\u2019s one thing that\u2019s equal to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor can do an across-the-board cut through the emergency powers in the Planning and Budgeting Act. That\u2019s the fastest way and it has less impact in totality,\u201d Attao added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we want to [do]\u2026is to prevent panic, and also to [build] the understanding that, yes, our current economic situation possibly will be affected, but our health is a priority,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Revisiting the past<\/p>\n

Faced with possible budget cuts, the legislators talked about revisiting some crisis that hit the CNMI in the past, such as the SARS epidemic and the Asian economic crisis, and learning from them.<\/p>\n

Attao said that he has asked the fiscal auditors to look back at the SARS epidemic, the Asian economic crisis, and the departure of the garment industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been through this in the past, so we need to utilize the information that we got from the past to be able to project forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI brought this up because we\u2019re looking at historical data when I was looking at the Asian economic crisis, which hit the Japanese market back in \u201998-\u201999,\u201d the House Speaker added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were slowly recovering back with the Japanese market, the SARS epidemic hit back in 2002. We\u2019ve faced these types of stuff, but we need to utilize the information that we got back then to be able to project for the future,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Attao stressed that if there\u2019s something that history teaches us, it\u2019s not to repeat the past. If there is something that worked really well or didn\u2019t work well then, the CNMI should use what worked well and improve on what didn\u2019t work so well, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all understand that it\u2019s going to be a big financial impact, a big economic hit to the CNMI, but the health of our people is our No. 1 priority. We\u2019re here to serve our people, we\u2019re here to find solutions to better their lives,\u201d Attao said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 declaration of a significant state of emergency in the CNMI,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}