Gov. Lolo Matalasi painted a rosy picture of ASG’s revenue collection, which he says broke records with more than $100 million collected in fiscal year 2014, a year that  he says put the government in the black, with more revenues than expenditures.

He also declared that the economic situation is improving for American Samoa with more than 1,000 new jobs in the last two years and nearly 2,000 new jobs forecast for 2015, when the new cannery and other businesses open their doors.

Lolo delivered his rose colored economy message during his State of the Territory Address yesterday before a Joint Session of the Fono that opened the First Regular Session of the 34th Legislature.

The governor recalled that when he appeared before the Fono in January 2013 — at the start of his administration — there were many concerns and the government was also faced with serious financial issues.

However, he said God has not forsaken American Samoa and its quest for a brighter and better future, and with everyone working together, solutions were found, especially for the concerns with finances, including Bank of Hawai’i’s plans to shutdown its local operations.

To fill the void that will be left behind when BoH departs, the governor says the first piece of legislation to be sent to the new Fono would allow the government to run a Charter Bank, under the name, “Territorial Bank of American Samoa”.

The second proposed bill would establish a local office to oversee banking and financial institution regulations and this office would ensure that local and federal banking laws are kept.

According to the governor these two measures are very important and he asked for the Fono’s support.

And while solutions had been identified to address concerns and problems over the last two years, Lolo told his audience that there are “still challenges ahead of us” and “we can again overcome them, working hand-in-hand.”

He thanked the Fono for their support over the past two years and he also expressed sincere appreciation for the assistance and support of Lt. Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga and all cabinet directors — including the heads of semi autonomous agencies of ASG.

According to the governor, the start of the year 2014 was a difficult one, made more so by the fact that he had been taken ill — but the year ended on a high note. As an example, he talked about the visit by Interior Assistant Secretary of Insular Areas Esther Kia’aina who was in the territory for a week and who also visited Manu’a.

He said that upon Kia’aina’s return to Washington D.C., she was able to release to ASG about $1.3 million to construct another building for Samoan High School, and $8.7 million towards the construction of a new boat for travel between Tutuila and Manu’a.

Lolo said Kia’aina’s visit also brought closer together the working relationship between American Samoa and DOI. He said that one of the things that Kia’aina spoke about is “our friendly people.”

ASG FINANCES

The governor reported to the Fono: “We have increased our actual collected revenues to $100,216,387 ($100.21 million) or an increase of over 7.2% or $6.7 million at the close of fiscal year 2014 compared to fiscal year 2013’s actual revenues of $93,443,000.”

He says this was achieved by implementing aggressive collection efforts. Moreover, “revenue increases reflect the effectiveness of our economic development and fiscal policies which facilitated the expansion of the private sector with regard to new business starts.”

The governor went on to point out that ASG closed FY 2013 in the black and this was done by limiting spending to actual revenues. The good news, he said, is that ASG has closed FY 2014 in the black — again — with expenditures lower than collected revenues.

“This financial success speaks well for our joint commitment to place our government in sound financial order,” the governor said. “Residual benefits created through our pledge to be fiscally responsible include Federal confidence in our capacity to prudently manage and account for all federal funds, as well as improving our ability to secure a favorable rating for our proposed bond issue.”

PRIVATE SECTOR

Lolo says that the government promised the people of American Samoa economic prosperity by creating new jobs, and the administration worked together with the Fono to achieve this goal in 2014.

According to the administration, in 2011, 3,100 business licenses were issued; 3,187 business licenses were issued in 2012; and in 2013 total number of business licenses issued was 3,695 constituting an increase of 15.9% between 2012 and 2013 compared to the 2.9% increase noted between 2011 and 2013.

Additionally, total number of new business established in 2014 is 579 along with 621 new business starts in 2013 bringing the total to 1,200 businesses established since 2013.

Total increased employment creation for 2014 is estimate to be 946 in the public and private sectors, bringing the total to over 1,500 jobs created since 2013, the governor said.

“The net effect is the growth in total territorial consumption which bolstered business sales and employment,” he said, adding that 2013 reported gross sales were $1,014,265,687 demonstrating our territorial economy exceeding one billion dollars.

For 2015, Lolo says estimates that some 2,000 new jobs will be created with the majority of the jobs coming when Tri Marine International opens its cannery at its Samoa Tuna Processors Inc., plant in Atu’u.

OTHER ISSUES

Lolo acknowledged the presence of Congresswoman Aumua Amata at the Fono opening and expressed his appreciation for her making time to attend this local event.

He also paid tribute to former Congressman Faleomavaega Eni, who served American Samoa in the U.S. Congress for more than 20 years. He thanked Faleomavaega for his service and wished him the best in future endeavors.

The 168-pages of the governor’s written address were distributed to lawmakers and others who attended yesterday’s ceremony, and later to cabinet directors and the news media. Samoa News will report in future editions on other issues of interest cited in the governor’s address, and will post the written document on line soon.