Desperate for funds, the administration has permitted the Legislature to create yet another exception to the rules that govern how the pension agency conducts business. The Fund chairman summed it up best when he said, “[they’ve] dumped an unknown variable into the equation.”
Meaning, they don’t know what they did, no one knows what they did, but they did it anyway.
The Legislature carved out exception after exception over the years, passing laws that added beneficiaries to the pension rolls, permitting adoptions without scrutiny, providing credit for accumulated sick leave, annual leave, compensatory time, hazardous duty, and every other credit they could come up with, all without providing a way to pay for it. Membership on the Fund board was, of course, political, and investment knowledge wasn’t required. Board members signed up for the privilege of traveling, dining with friends, and rubber-stamping the chief executive’s decision not to pay into the very Fund they were appointed to protect. This has gone on for 20 years. The Fund’s current predicament did not materialize overnight. It also didn’t help that this administration and its two predecessors hired nonessential employees instead of paying the Fund.
Senators are now poised to introduce a bill that covers a tiny portion of the government’s obligation to the Fund, but how will they do this without revenue?
No one knows, but they will do it anyway.
Yet another harebrained idea
THE administration says it is planning to invest in a “CNMI carrier.” CUC and the hospital have been run into the ground under its watch, but the administration now wants to run an airline, something professionals in the airline industry struggle to do. The government, moreover, cannot pay for its own utility bills and the fuel tax associated with them, but it is willing to pay fuel for aircraft to fly to the CNMI. Underlying this move is a more frightening consideration. No airline wants to fly to the CNMI without a direct government subsidy.
Meanwhile, the administration picks three operators for the La Fiesta complex up north, a decision that has been pending for a year or more.
These developments followed the passage of the controversial local casino bill whose enactment, one way or another, is a foregone conclusion.
Concerned citizens should now begin preparing the initiative that will repeal casino legislation.
Back to basics
THE mayor of Saipan complains that the paltry $900,000 budgeted for his office doesn’t even cover his expenses. The mayor will soon come to grips with the fact that he will in all likelihood receive substantially less for his operations as the new fiscal year unfolds. The mayor will suffer, as most other government offices do, from an overabundance of employees and no funding for supplies, equipment, or other critical needs with which to provide public service.
Compared to his predecessors, Mayor Flores is energetic and eager to do good for the community so it is unfortunate that he is hampered by a lack of funding. Still, he might take this opportunity to pare back his staff to essential employees.
Competition is good
CONGRESSMAN Kilili says he’s “very disappointed” that under the worker rule, unemployed U.S. citizens in the CNMI will have to compete for jobs against foreigners.
Why is that a problem? Nothing prevents a qualified U.S. citizen to get a private sector job. Employers, in fact, would rather hire residents. It’s easier to do so. You don’t have to go through the federal bureaucracy, file documents and pay fees. But businesses, unlike government, cannot survive if they do not have workers who show up on time, who know what they are doing, and are willing to work hard.
Surely U.S. citizens in the CNMI can do all that. Surely they can compete. Surely, by now, they are sick and tired of depending on politicians for government jobs or the occasional dole-outs. True, the local private sector doesn’t pay as much as the government (whose wages are set by politicians), but U.S. citizens can always get another job. They can live within their means. They can, moreover, avail of the training opportunities provided by their local and federal governments to further improve themselves. Indeed, it’s never too late to acquire the education that can land them high-paying jobs in their vast nation that still has the world’s largest economy.
Competition, in any case, is good. It keeps us on our toes. It motivates us to be better and to do better. It’s the lack of competition that we should worry about.
