This “doomsday” possibility was first raised in early 1998, when the then-new administration realized that the economic sugar rush of 1995-97 had ended, and the government’s budget that was projected to reach over $260 million had to be reduced drastically. “Taya salape,” proclaimed the newly elected officials as austerity measures were announced and implemented — selectively, it was revealed later. “Austerity for us, prosperity for them,” as one of our letter writers would put it.
Since then, the local economy has continued its downward spiral but the CNMI government remains the main employer of voters, which is why real and meaningful spending cuts can only be implemented by elected officials willing to commit political hara-kiri. The governor is no longer seeking re-election and should be able to do what must be done, but most of his legislative allies are not planning to retire anytime soon, and they remain vulnerable to political pressure from their constituents.
Hence, they have, once again, resorted to the “payless payday” scenario: “You think paycuts are bad? Not getting paid is much worse.” The re-imposition of the austerity measures, in other words, is for your own good. It will protect your jobs and allow you to continue getting paid.
When the current administration and the Covenant Legislature first imposed austerity four years ago, those affected were the rank and file — those who were not a getting a lot — while exemptions were granted to the “essential” employees. Not surprisingly, the government’s financial bleeding did not stop, but the timely arrival of the federal cover-over funds saved the day at least in FY 2008. In the following fiscal year, which was an election year, the government said it incurred a $17 million deficit.
With local immigration federalized, the prospects of new investments have grown even dimmer and the CNMI’s only hope now is the relocation of Futenma to Tinian. But that’s a big if — it would be very costly for the feds and Japan, and it would not happen as fast as the CNMI wants it to happen.
It seems that the governor and the Legislature have no choice but to go ahead with payless Fridays and holidays while imposing higher fees and taxes.
A tax hike is favored by some of the good citizens of CNMI who assume that the additional revenue will go to critical public services. But that’s not going to happen. Any new money — assuming that the government can still draw blood from an anemic economy — will instead go to the elected officials’ more critical political needs. That is, more hiring.
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As this bankrupt government continues to scrape the bottom of its financial barrel, it will also have to spend thousands of dollars, again, so that some 120 voters can elect a mayor of a jurisdiction with four residents and an office that employs over 40 personnel.
Why do the people of the CNMI tolerate this wasteful expense? Why are we all pretending that the Northern Islands need a mayor’s office when almost all their people are already living on Saipan?
The NIMO “crisis” should have been laughable if only taxpayers were not footing the bill for this farce. The CNMI government, no doubt, has other redundant offices — a lot actually — but the Northern Islands mayor’s office is emblematic of everything that is wrong with the status quo.
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