MVA taken aback by proposed Senate budget cuts

The Marianas Visitors Authority is surprised that $1.59 million—or roughly 11 percent of its earmarks—is being proposed by the Senate to be deducted from its budget for Fiscal Year 2017.

During yesterday’s regular board of directors meeting at the MVA conference room, MVA managing director Chris Concepcion disagreed with the Senate’s decision to lap off over $1 million of the tourism body’s resources for the coming fiscal year, which starts in Oct. 1, 2016.

He added that such decision would be contradicting the aims and goals of the MVA.

“The MVA is opposed to the cuts being proposed by the Senate version of the FY ’17 budget. It would totally hamper our efforts to market the CNMI overseas. It will hamper our efforts to provide activities for tourists to do here while in the CNMI. Such as the Taste of the Marianas, sporting events, marathons, Hell of the Marianas, and more.”

More importantly, Concepcion thinks that rekindling the lost spark between Japan and the CNMI would be set back because of the proposed budget cut.

“The revitalization of the Japan market is going to take a hit because of this. This $1.59 million is a lot of money that we need. We have airline support programs that we are proposing and we are not able to fund it if they take away this money. And Japan has been a big focus for the Legislature, so we are concerned that them taking this away shows that maybe the Japan market isn’t as important as they say it is.”

Concepcion strongly believes that the MVA budget does not even have to be cut by that much. He pointed out that many of the budget allotments of the new bill could be funded by grants instead of the MVA budget, such as the new fire truck for the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services, the redesigning of roadways for the Department of Public Works, and the new vehicles for Rota’s Department of Public Safety.

Board chair Marian Aldan-Pierce also expressed disapproval for the possible budget cut not only because it shortchanges the MVA, but because it’s not been put into law.

“Some of the things that they are allotting for the modification are actually things that the MVA probably would have funded,” she said.

Pierce pointed out that the MVA is on board anything that has to do with the improvement of tourism in general. She further reiterated that passing such budget cuts into law is purposeless.

“It’s unnecessary. It’s not like we’re sitting on 100 percent of the Hotel Occupancy Tax. The board is very cognizant that we are one tourism industry, and probably a lot of the functions, a lot of the things that they want to fund are part of tourism industry, which is why we should be given an opportunity to make those decisions as a board member, and not necessarily make them into a law.”

Pierce states that the MVA is fully aware of what its duties and responsibilities are, and thinks that the budget cut would be ultimately detrimental to the already well-performing MVA.

“Give us a chance to do what we are mandated by law to do. Five of the board members that were here were appointed by the governor, so we’re very cognizant of our fiduciary responsibility; this is something that we do not take lightly.”

Talks about budget allocation for FY 2017 are still under way with the Senate and the House of Representatives going into bicameral conference committee after they rejected each of their versions of next fiscal year’s general appropriations bill.