‘$850K that will be taken from MVA will be returned

House of Representatives vice speaker Blas Jonathan T. Attao (R-Saipan) said Tuesday that the $850,000 they proposed to remove from the Marianas Visitors Authority for the $1,000 bonuses for government retirees will be backfilled or returned to MVA through the American Rescue Plan Act funding.

Speaking at a news briefing in the House chamber last Tuesday, Attao said the MVA should instead be fighting to get the $9 million Hotel Occupancy Tax funds owed MVA prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Attao and Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan), along with some other representatives, held the news briefing to discuss their plans for the proposed retirees’ bonuses, which has become a tug-of-war between the House and the Senate over how to come up with the manner with which the bonuses will be made available. The Senate wants to do it via a joint resolution; the House wants to do it via a House bill.

During the Senate’s session on Tinian last March 10, Sen. Victor B. Hocog (R-Rota) said the House conferees had proposed to remove $850,000 from MVA’s $1.3 million budget in fiscal year 2022, yet there was no discussion with the MVA managing director or its board of directors whether that would cripple MVA.

Tinian and Aguiguan Mayor Edwin P. Aldan urged the Senate to reject the House’s intent to use HOT funds for the bonuses and identify an alternative funding source.

When asked about the senators’ and the mayor’s concerns, Attao said Tuesday that Finance Secretary David DLG. Atalig had mentioned that they would be backfilling the monies that were taken out from the local appropriation on the Budget Act under Public Law 22-08.

“So those monies are essentially not gone,” said Attao, adding that, in fact, MVA is still owed HOT of almost $9 million prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said during the pandemic and today, there hasn’t been any tourism functions outside of the travel bubble program.

The vice speaker said that, as Atalig had mentioned, they will replenish or backfill the monies that that were taken out of local accounts through ARPA funds.

He said he is happy that the Senate joint resolution for the retirees’ bonuses removes Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ 100% reprogramming authority of the budget because that’s very contentious on the House side.

On the $9-million HOT funds owed MVA, Attao said those are non-lapsing monies and that MVA should be fighting for it. He said those monies can be continuously used by MVA as they don’t have fiscal year limitations to it.

The vice speaker said if there is a concern about $850,000 that will be taken to address the retirees’ bonuses, MVA should be more concerned of the $9 million that they have not been paid.

Attao said the $9 million will go way farther for all the programs on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.

Rep. Leila Staffler (D-Saipan) said a compromise is also looking at those funding sources since that was one of the points of contention between the Senate and the House.

“If we were to be able to meet as a conference committee, that’s one of the compromises we are absolutely willing to make,” Staffler said.

She said that Atalig told them when he met with the House Ways and Means Committee a couple of weeks ago which funding sources would be best to choose from.

At the March 10 session on Tinian, the full Senate adopted Senate Joint Resolution 22-09 approving Torres’ request to create a new program and business unit for the government retirees’ bonuses.

Authored by Senate president Jude Hofschneider (R-Tinian) and co-sponsored by five other Republican senators, the Senate joint resolution also approves Torres’ request to reprogram $2.6 million from within the Executive Branch for the payment of the bonuses.