The looming cuts in federal funding will also affect the CNMI economy, Inos added. The commonwealth, he said, receives a total of $82 million in federal grants annually.
The other “variable” affecting the local economy is the fate of nonresident workers, Inos said. Once they depart in significant numbers, it will again adversely affect business operations, he added.
The government, he said, is monitoring all economic indicators “so we can prepare ourselves.”
According to Inos, the government is trying to do something to improve the situation through the tourism industry. With the help of the Marianas Visitors Authority and other agencies, he said the government is trying to increase the CNMI’s air seat capacity.
MVA Managing Director Perry Tenorio said local tourism suffered a lot when the tsunami hit Japan early this year.
But he said many Japanese have started traveling to the CNMI again.
Two lawmakers agreed with Inos’s assessment and shared their own ideas.
Rep. Ray A. Tebuteb, R-Saipan, said he remains optimistic that CNMI economy can rebound but only if all elected officials will have the will to sit down and set aside “politics.”
“Political will and a collective vision are the solutions,” Tebuteb said.
He also supports the proposal to reduce the salary of each lawmaker and the size of the Legislature itself.
Rep. Joseph M. Palacios, R-Saipan, for his part said that when they passed the $102 million budget three months ago, lawmakers already knew the situation was going to get worse.
“We cannot stop businesses if they decide to close,” Palacios said.
That is why he and his colleagues in the House leadership are working for the passage of the Saipan casino bill, he added.
He said the House leadership has also come up with other revenue-generating measures, “but for some reason, they sit idle in the Senate.”
Palacios said they don’t even have to impose new taxes. There are current revenue-making laws that are not being enforced, and this should not be the case, he added.
