With the CNMI Fiscal Response Summit culminating tomorrow, it is hoped that the planned policies that will stem from it\u2014with all three branches of government uniting with the private sector\u2014can correct the direction of the Commonwealth\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n
According to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, the leaders in the summit will be doing the \u201cnecessary but difficult\u201d decision to do this.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long last couple of months for us, and I know it\u2019s been hard for everyone. This virus has taken a toll on our islands, both physically with our health, economically with our budget shortfall, and emotionally with our lives,\u201d he said. \u201cI will continue to work with everyone from all three branches of government, majority and minority, public and private sectors on solutions and to ensure that federal assistance gets to our people as soon as possible.\u201d <\/p>\n
The summit\u2019s ultimate goal is to have a plan for the next three years that would address issues like revenue shortfalls, bloated government, utility costs, public health, retirees, medical referrals, among others.<\/p>\n
Torres, as an example, stated that they are pushing to put more employees on federally-funded programs, adding that unless it\u2019s for an urgent matter, or an essential position, no hiring will be made using local funds, and that such practice should be across the board. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to have this holistic approach and have a strong ultimate plan for the next two to three years. \u2026I\u2019m hopeful that at the end of this economic summit, both sides would come into a fruitful discussion on what we all need to be part of,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re here to address where we are today, where we\u2019re at before, but more importantly, where do we go from here.\u201d <\/p>\n
Tomorrow afternoon, April 28, the plenary session will reconvene at 1:30pm to hear the consolidated results of the summit working groups, as well as closing remarks from the principals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the CNMI Fiscal Response Summit culminating tomorrow, it is hoped that the planned policies…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[257],"class_list":["post-321744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-nmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321744","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=321744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}