Stop kicking the can already
INSTEAD of scraping the revenue barrel for leftover funds, snatching money from agencies like NMHC or preying on taxpayer wallets, lawmakers should pay more attention to how the local tourism-based economy works, and its slow recovery.
As MVA’s acting chair reminded lawmakers recently, they should learn more about the numbers compiled by MVA, the chamber of commerce and HANMI as well as the issues pertaining to flight service, the CNMI’s tourism markets, including the history itself of the local tourism industry.
Lawmakers, by now, should realize that there will be no improvement in the CNMI government’s financial condition until the local economy gets better — or the feds provide a massive bailout, which is unlikely.
Lawmakers say they want the government to meet its obligations to its employees, retirees, PSS, CHCC, DPS, CUC, students, vendors, etc., etc. Then they must find ways to boost tourist arrivals and improve the local economy. Otherwise, they must reduce government spending, which must be based on actual revenue collection and not on (often deluded) projections.
For some lawmakers, however, the immediate “solution” is the passage of fee/tax hikes. But revenue collection is down because businesses are not earning as much as before. So the government should saddle them with additional costs and make them pay higher taxes? This is a mathematical absurdity that only politicians (and, sadly, many voters) could embrace.
Still, as we’ve pointed out before, the actual goal of tax-hire measures has nothing to do with “raising additional revenue.” The real intent is to allow the CNMI government to continue its overspending ways based on the new “projected” revenue that will supposedly be generated by tax hikes — regardless of actual collections.
Consider the FY 2024 budget. As reported by the Department of Finance, the revenue projection for the first quarter is off by $5.3 million or over 12%. At this rate, as a House member noted, the CNMI government could end up with a $20 million shortfall in FY 2024.
But notice anything? The CNMI government continues to function based on its revenue projections, one of which has already been debunked by actual collections. Will lawmakers, in an election year, consider another budget based on current collections? That is, will they dare propose budget cuts while soliciting, once again, the support of voters, many of whom are government employees or retirees?
Taxpayers, protect your wallets.
Not an ATM
SOME say the private sector should stop “complaining” to the government whenever business is bad. As the primary source of local revenue that elected officials love to spend and take credit for, the business community’s concerns should be heard, particularly by those who enact ill-conceived policies and legislation that make things so much worse for distressed businesses.
“There’s desperation out there,” a hotel executive told lawmakers recently. Said one of the lawmakers, “Pass tax hike measures.” Seriously?!
It is the government that should get off the back of legitimate, law-abiding businesses so they could survive and generate more government revenue. The private sector is not the government’s 24-hour ATM. Elected officials, to be sure, want to be generous, especially with other people’s money. Thanks mostly to boneheaded (federal and local) government laws, policies, rules and/or restrictions, the CNMI economy is still down. Many people are leaving the islands, and many of the taxpayers still here are struggling to remain afloat. This government should stop pestering them, and should try living within its means for a change.
