By Zaldy Dandan
Variety Editor

THERE will be more budget cuts because the CNMI government has not instituted sound financial and management policies for many, many years.
According to Jeanette Franzel, director of financial management and assurance of the Government Accountability Office: “The fiscal condition of the CNMI’s government steadily weakened from fiscal year 2001 through fiscal year 2005, the most recent year for which audited financial statements for the CNMI are available. The CNMI’s fund balance, which generally reflects the amount of resources available for current government operations, went into a deficit balance during fiscal year 2002 and continued to decline through the end of fiscal year 2005. The CNMI has also shown significant declines and negative balances in its reported net assets, which is another measure of fiscal health. In order to finance its government activities in an environment where expenditures have exceeded revenues, the CNMI has increased its debt.”
And this was around the time when then-Gov. John Babauta was assuring everyone that things were “pretty darn good.”
Last week, Rep. Joe Deleon Guerrero orchestrated the passage of a measure to fully fund the PSS budget. Education officials later promised to attend budget hearings on Tinian to ensure the Senate’s approval. But the House solution is once again a shell game with lawmakers shuffling the shells around, although this time there is no pea under any of the shells.
There is no money for the government because it is too big and too wasteful and there is no new business in the CNMI. Lawmakers can shuffle funds all they want, but those monies right now exist only on paper and such “solutions” from the Legislature merely betray a fundamental lack of appreciation for the enormity of the government’s financial problems.
The temporary austerity holidays will have to be extended and most likely be made permanent because financial and management problems of this magnitude cannot be changed overnight. We repeat: There will be more cuts, and they are likely to be deeper.
And in this financial climate it is hard to imagine that any government agency or branch can or should expect blanket exemptions. PSS officials are banking on the politicians’ lack of backbone and unwillingness to inspect the school budget and make surgical cuts. The matter of whether teachers, janitors, bus drivers, and other essential service providers are exempt from austerity measure was resolved long ago. Those who tend to the education, safety and health of the kids when in school are essential. To suggest, however, that every employee at PSS is essential and should be spared from the cuts is ridiculous in the face of this fiscal crisis.
PSS has to make more budget cuts. Regular school days, for example, can be shortened, Christmas vacation can be shortened, and Easter break can be eliminated completely. Orders for next year’s school supplies can be placed now. The feds pay for most supplies anyway and they seem to be pretty accommodating. Except for a few programs here and there, school is essentially out during the summer holidays, and with proper planning and a sharp pencil, there has got to be some way savings can be realized there.
For elected and appointed education official to take advantage of a very real hardship is plain irresponsibility. For lawmakers to give in to obvious political pressure under these very difficult financial circumstances shows a decided lack of leadership and a colossal failure to comprehend the seriousness of this problem.
Lawmakers should be explaining to the public that for PSS to operate with its budget intact other agencies will have to undergo cuts in the neighborhood of 45 to 50 percent. And that will not be enough. Additional cuts will have to be imposed on other agencies, including “essential” ones.
There is no other choice. Budget cuts must be applied, but surgically and with a great deal of thought and consideration. And this requires that the Legislature do a better job than it has so far. Lawmakers, for once, have to tell the people the truth: their government is too big and too broke and has to stop ordering steak because now it cannot even afford soba.