By Zaldy Dandan
Variety Editor

ON Wednesday, after the passage in the House of the “alternative austerity measure,” one of the co-sponsors of that bad bill was overheard saying that it will be stamped “D.O.A.” — dead on arrival — in the Senate.
I hope he’s right. The Senate should reject H.B. 15-196. And should the senators be as unwise as the 10 House members who voted for the bill, then the governor should veto it.
The bill will supposedly “ease” the burden on government employees by ending the 10 percent pay cut mandated by the austerity holiday law which lawmakers passed because the government is broke. Instead of this pay cut, supporters of H.B. 15-196 say government employees should not get paid on seven holidays; and the rebates of taxpayers, which include government employees, should be cut by 20 percent.
Will this solve the problem of the government’s lack of money? No; the bill doesn’t even pretend that it will do that. Will it “ease” the burden on government employees? No; they will not get paid for seven days and will end up paying what is virtually a new tax. Every tax is a pay cut. That’s what reducing rebates means.
So what will this bill achieve? Nothing good, although the 10 House members who voted for it are hoping that government employees (i.e., voters) will think that these lawmakers did something “good,” for once. Well, they didn’t. And I don’t believe that voters are that stupid either.
One of the most ridiculous comments I heard about this bill is that “tax rebates…are a government gift, not an entitlement.” It’s the other way around. Taxes are the public’s “gift” to the government which can only exist with the consent of the governed, and that includes taxpayers. Tax laws were enacted by officials elected into office by taxpaying voters. Taxes are only paid to the government so it can provide services for taxpayers. Allowing this bloated government to waste a larger amount of taxpayers’ money is a disservice to the taxpaying public.
The problem with the CNMI is not its tax system (which is actually one of the best things the commonwealth has). The problem is the government’s spending habits. The local tax system works. It’s the local government that is malfunctioning — it spends more than it earns. The solution is not to raise taxes, which will result in more wasteful spending while shooing away the very few new investors actually interested in doing business here. No. The solution is to cut government expenses.
These, as I’ve written before, are the real austerity measures: cut the salaries of all officials, require them to give up their government cars and gasoline allowances, limit the use of utilities at all government offices, stop junketing and allow non-essential government workers to “work” at their homes — that way, they can gossip, talk with their friends on the phone, watch TV, chat online and surf the Web without costing the government anything. Just send them their checks on paydays.
H.B. 15-196, in any case, is not even an alternative austerity measure. It is nothing but legislated political demagoguery in an election year. It also betrays once again the intellectual bankruptcy of what passes for an opposition on Capital Hill. Sadly for the people of the CNMI, their GOP has no good ideas to offer to them. Which is, come to think of it, hardly surprising. The local Republicans created this mess in the first place.

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Voters, here are the lawmakers who voted for your best interests when they voted against raising your taxes — Speaker Oscar M. Babauta, Vice Speaker Justo S. Quitugua, Reps. Martin B. Ada, Cinta M. Kaipat and Jesus SN. Lizama.

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