Generous to whom? Are we really saying that a portion of our income — the money we earned through our work or business — belongs to the government, and that we are lucky it doesn’t take everything? But the government is the people’s creation. Its officials and personnel are supposedly public servants. We give them our money — taxes or fees — so they can perform essential services for us. Moreover, the laws that require the payment of taxes were enacted by officials elected by voters. In other words, citizens are being taxed because they agreed to be taxed. Through the same democratic process, they can, if they so choose, reduce the rate of taxes — even to zero. But in that case, they are also expected not to expect much from their government.
Many years ago, in light of the islands’ very small population and the feds’ generosity, the CNMI’s elected officials decided to implement a tax system allowing businesses and taxpayers to get back most of the money they remitted to the government in the previous year. The government basically gets a no-interest loan — from which it could earn hundreds if not millions of dollars in interest alone — from taxpayers. Taxpayers used to get their rebates on time. Not anymore. Yet their government, which penalizes late filers, is never penalized.
This is generosity to taxpayers?
The CNMI government is in crisis not because of its tax system, which is admirable, but because of its spending habits, which are irresponsible. It has consistently spent more than what it can collect. Why? Because politicians, once elected, have to reward supporters with jobs or contracts. And then with generous salaries, perks and a Ponzi pension system. And free education and healthcare. And homesteads. And loans. And…
Based on its record and the reality of political inertia, giving this government more money will result in more hiring of political supporters.
Guaranteed. Passing laws specifically mandating that a certain pool of money will be spent on a certain item or program has never prevented this government from either ignoring or violating them. Under the law, tax rebates are supposed to be kept in a special trust account; NMC is supposed to receive a certain percentage of government fees; and the Retirement Fund is supposed to get employer contributions. Under the CNMI Constitution, in fact, the government must retire its deficit.
Clearly, the commonwealth is in big trouble because its leaders have never followed the laws they created — and voters have never held these officials accountable.
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Other sensible people say that raising the minimum wage rate should “motivate” more locals to work for the private sector. This seems a no-brainer. Workers, local or not, would like to be paid more. The question is: Where to get the money, in this economy, for the wage hike? This may be news to former CNMI residents who now live somewhere else, but since the private sector was compelled by a 2007 federal law signed by President Bush to raise wages, CNMI companies have tried to cope primarily through work-hour cuts, the scrapping of housing, transportation and healthcare benefits as well as other cost-cutting measures. But the economy continues to get worse and the consumer base is still shrinking. Drive around the island and you will see mostly abandoned buildings and establishments that have already shut down. The stretch of Beach Road from Chalan Kanoa to PIC looks like a ghost town already. Ask private sector employees if they’re on a full-time work schedule. I know a lot of businesses that consider themselves lucky to earn just enough to pay their workers and buy supplies.
It’s not going to get better anytime soon. Another wage hike will result in a further reduction of work hours in the private sector, and that is not a prediction. A wage hike, however, is inevitable, and unless federal law is amended, the local rate will eventually become $7.25 an hour, and everyone will be happy, unless you’re an employee whose work hours will be down to 2 or 3 a day. I don’t think that’s enough motivation for locals who know that regardless of how bad the economy is, the CNMI government will continue to pay political hires high salaries for performing nonessential “tasks.”
Instead of just waiting for the full implementation of the federal wage hike law, the CNMI government should now “foster savings and entrepreneurial activities among the resident population to encourage local participation in private sector economic development,” and “moderat[e] government pay and benefit levels over time.”
Those were among the recommendations of the Hay Group report on NMI wages in 1997. The report was cited by the CNMI government to justify a freeze in wage hike, but its other suggestions — the freeze was supposed to be for the next three years only, for example — were disregarded.
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The Tagalog translation of the CW rule is a word for word hack work. It is an incomprehensible abomination. Incidentally, since 1987, Filipino, not Pilipino, not Tagalog, has been the official Philippine national language. They’re not the same.
I’m assuming that the feds paid for this gibberish. I suggest that next time, they should give the work to the Department of Filipino of the University of the Philippines, the Ateneo or even La Salle in Manila to get a Filipino translation that Filipinos can understand.
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