THE Marianas Visitors Authority believes that House Bill 22-95 would shut down MVA operations for the rest of the fiscal year.
Passed by the House of Representatives on March 29, H.B. 22-95 would allot $2.6 million — including $858,000 from MVA’s budget — for the retirees’ bonuses.
“We have been asked by the Senate president, if we can provide a written response on MVA’s position in regards to this House bill, that way they [the senators] can also have a direction on how to act on it,” MVA Managing Director Priscilla Iakopo told MVA board members during a meeting Tuesday.
“I did not want to just go ahead and submit a letter,” she added. “I also wanted to gain your support, to know where your position is.”
Vice Speaker Blas Jonathan T. Attao has said that the $858,000 they would take from MVA could be “backfilled” with American Rescue Plan Act or ARPA funds.
He also said that MVA should “fight” to get the $9 million in Hotel Occupancy Tax owed to MVA prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
MVA’s main source of funding is the hotel occupancy tax collected from tourists. The tourism industry, however, has all but shut down since March 2020 amid the global pandemic.
According to Iakopo, the Department of Finance does not owe MVA $9 million in hotel occupancy tax or HOT, “because they already remitted that.”
She added, “I am not aware of how they received that information [about the HOT]. We were not asked for any comments or financial questions pertaining to [the HOT].”
For her part, MVA Board Chairwoman Viola Alepuyo, who attended the meeting via Zoom, said she had asked Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig if it is true that MVA’s budget can be “backfilled” with federal ARPA funds.
“The secretary said he did not know where the House of Representatives was getting that information,” Alepuyo said. “More importantly, the Finance secretary made it clear that he did not know where that information came from — it did not come from him. He did not think that it is legally permissible for Finance to ‘backfill’ MVA’s budget if House Bill 22-95 is approved.”
Asked by Iakopo if they support the bill, the MVA members unanimously said no.
Board member Ivan Quichocho said the $858,000 would be taken “from our operations funds for this fiscal year…basically they are saying ‘we’re closing you down.’ ”
Board Vice Chairwoman Gloria Cavanaugh said: “There is no $9 million in [Hotel Occupancy Tax]. All we have is $822,000 for operational budget for the rest of the [fiscal] year.”
Board member Marian Aldan-Pierce said the House should tap another funding source.
“Our job is to create a revenue source for the entire CNMI,” said another board member, Chris Nelson. “Taking funding from MVA will prevent us from fulfilling our mission.”
Also present during the meeting were board members Masaru Sunaga and Thomas Liu.
Marianas Visitors Authority Managing Director Priscilla Iakopo, right, attends a meeting of the MVA board on Tuesday at its office.
