IF the current budget proposal for fiscal year 2003 remains at its present level of $217 million, the House of Representatives may not approve its passage.
Speaker Heinz S. Hofschneider said the administration’s $217 million revenue projection may not be prudent.
“To assume that the $217 million will be realized on the basis of assumptions and not on facts would be foolish thinking. It leaves no room for the House but to be prudent in reducing the total resources for the operations of the government,” Hofschneider, R-Saipan, said in an interview yesterday.
He said the CNMI has three basic economic generators—the construction, garment and tourism industries. The construction industry, he said, depends on government-funded construction projects.
The garment industry is “pretty static and isolated.”
The tourism industry, according to Hofschneider, serves as the backbone of the CNMI economy which produces a domino effect on income generation in all other service industries.
However, he said the performance of the tourism industry has not yet shown signs of growth that merits an increase in the budget for the next fiscal year.
“When you do promotions and advertising today, the impact will be felt six months after. So there’s almost a delayed impact when you institute an aggressive campaign today in anticipation of the $217 million generation—you will not be able to see that,” he said. “And it would not be safe to make the budget depend on how much we might earn from the industry instead of basing it on factual information and on the actual condition of that sector,” the speaker added.
