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MVA asks $11.3M budget for FY07
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Posted on Apr 19 2006
The Marianas Visitors Authority is asking for $11.3 million budget for the next fiscal year—a 61-percent increase over its current budget level.
The MVA board adopted the new budget during its special meeting yesterday.
MVA board chair Jerry Tan said the increase of over $4 million would be used mainly for advertising and promotion of the CNMI overseas.
Vice chair Marian Aldan-Pierce said the budget increase is in line with the governor’s goal to increase annual tourist arrivals to 1 million by 2008.
The CNMI received less than 600,000 tourists last year.
Under the pre-revised government budget, MVA is appropriated $7 million a year but it only gets a net budget of $5.9 million due to constitutionally mandated deductions for deficit payment and the Office of the Public Auditor’s fee.
When the Fitial administration took over in January this year, it reduced the government’s continuing budget from $213 million to $198.5 million, citing a projected decline in government revenues. As a result, the administration implemented a government-wide budget cut.
The Office of Management and Budget, for instance, moved to slash MVA’s budget by $1.1 million. The MVA, however, said it could only cut its budget by $300,000 for the current fiscal year.
For fiscal year 2006, the MVA would have a working budget of $5.6 million.
Tan has said that the MVA could not sacrifice its advertising and marketing funds if it is to meet its goal of attracting more tourists to the islands.
