The opposite of progress
IN his State of the Commonwealth Address, the governor said he is “not repeating the mistakes of the past by resorting to quick fixes that might work in the short term for just a few but fail in the long term for the people of the Commonwealth.”
He should have been more specific. What are those “quick fixes”? Do they include the revival of the tourism industry and the entry of a new major investor that prevented the collapse of the NMI Retirement Fund? Government retirees and their families benefited from that “quick fix” — but so did the rest of the CNMI people, which is how economic growth works.
In any case, is the governor aware that this kind of rhetorical framing — pitting “the few” against “the people”— drips with class-war overtones?
And speaking of “quick fixes,” how does this administration justify its tireless panhandling in Washington, D.C.? Is that the answer to what ails the local economy — more federal funds that often end up financing the pet priorities of whichever federal politicians hold power at the moment?
The history of the NMI offers a clear lesson: economic growth didn’t come from big government spending. As the governor himself noted in his SOCA, government outlays during the Trust Territory era (under the U.S. no less) did not generate significant economic activity. That was the period when many local residents became virtual wards of Uncle Sam — something that the NMI’s Covenant negotiators worked hard to move the islands away from.
And yet, this administration seems intent on steering us back toward that same state of dependency.
Even politicians can’t dodge arithmetic
ACCORDING to the governor’s SOCA, “We need to return to a state where we sacrifice instant gratification in favor of long-term sustainability.”
We sure hope the CNMI government would heed his advice. Instead of the “instant gratification” that comes with increasing taxes and fees, the government should reduce its costs and consolidate its many — so many — duplicative departments, divisions, offices, agencies and programs.
And as Rep. JP Sablan has pointed out, the administration should also submit a revised budget proposal that reflects the islands’ economic reality. The governor has submitted a new budget that is $20 million higher than last fiscal year’s. And yet his own Finance secretary has noted the “reduction in flights, recent business closures and reduction in employment from closed businesses,” and how these “developments may contribute to financial fluctuations during the coming periods….” Which is bureaucratese for “we could be in deep kimchi.”
Incidentally, in his SOCA, the governor claimed that “the number of new businesses opening is triple the number of those that are closing.”
When you go out there — when you talk to people and look around — does it seem like more businesses are opening than closing?
