Unbelievable
AT a recent public hearing, a senator asked the Finance secretary if she is “confident” that the projected government revenue can be collected if a construction tax bill becomes law. To her credit, she acknowledged that the projection was based on “high-level assumptions.” She said there are “so many factors” that can affect a construction project. “What would give us more confidence,” she said, “is the actual passage of the legislation and actual collections and then, from there, we would have a real basis to forecast.” Or, to paraphrase former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, we have to pass the tax hike bill to know if the expected revenue can be realized.
Never mind that the administration has consistently missed its revenue projections since last year. Maybe this time they’ll get it right. So let’s impose tax hikes that will raise prices in this economy. Maybe taxpayers will buy more of goods and services even if they cost more. Maybe struggling businesses won’t incur more losses. Maybe they won’t further reduce work-hours or lay off more workers. Maybe they won’t shut down. Maybe the government will not end up collecting less, not more revenue.
Or maybe the Senate fiscal analyst was right when, back in February, he described a tax-hike revenue projection as “unbelievable.”
Maybe it’s time for the administration and its legislative allies to read the 2020 CNMI Fiscal Response Summit report and its list of suggested cost-cutting measures.
Taxpayers’ wallets are not your personal ATM. Can’t afford your expenses? Then do what the rest of us do. Prioritize and cut your spending.
Here we go again
IN his remarks during the (big) government’s Labor Day celebration on Sunday, the governor made what is basically an election-year promise when he said, “We look forward very soon, when we will…leave austerity Mondays.” How? “The secretary of Finance,” he said, “is hereby instructed to figure it out with all department heads, for the next fiscal year. We will get it done, we will figure it out.”
Maybe. However, the only way to truly get it “done” is if the economy finally improves and returns to its pre-pandemic levels. The administration’s role — and it is a job that the governor signed up for — is to find ways to bring in more tourists and/or new investors. Historically, that was how previous CNMI economic downturns ended. More tourists arrived and new investors opened shop.
But improving the economy also requires a governor willing to make things happen, and not just wait for them to happen.
It’s still the economy
PRIOR to the enactment of the bill re-naming, among other things, the medical referral services office, we asked what would happen if the “Health Network Program” runs out of money and lawmakers fail to appropriate funding right away.
Well, now we know. CHCC announced that it was suspending the program’s subsistence benefits, which provoked a public outcry that jolted CNMI officials out of their inaction. The governor announced the transfer of $80,000 to CHCC, but didn’t mention the funding source. Saipan lawmakers, for their part, appropriated $300,000 from poker license fee collections (with nary a complaint from those who like to bewail the evils of legalized gambling in general and poker arcades in particular).
According to a media statement, CHCC and the governor also “discussed long-term strategies to ensure the sustainability of the HNP. Both leaders expressed optimism about these solutions….”
What are those “solutions”? Do they involve more tax-hike proposals? When will they tell us?
Then and now, the primary problem with medical referrals, or whatever else you want to call them, is that they require funding. A surefire way to secure funds for the program is to grow the economy, which will mean more revenue for the government. Otherwise, the government must reduce its spending in other areas so it can provide the HNP with the funding it needs.
