Lawmakers say you can’t have your pugua and chew it too
MOST, if not almost all, politicians have the ability to hold two or even three opposed ideas in mind at the same time — without acknowledging that they are contradictory at all. This is especially true about bills that aim to ban, restrict or impose higher taxes/fees on “sin” items: tobacco, alcohol, sugary beverages. Joining the list are imported pugua and lime which House Bill 23-41 would tax.
Why?
The tax would supposedly allow “our residents…in that business…to compete fairly.” How? By making their competitors’ products more expensive. Which, according to the bill, is “free enterprise.”
Very Orwellian, to be sure. (“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”) But then the bill says it would also “deter the development of oral cancer in the CNMI.” Apparently, local pugua and lime are not as oral-cancer-inducing as imported ones.
This, in any case, reminds us of a local resident who, in the late 1970s, said the authorities could neither charge nor arrest him for committing a crime under federal and CNMI laws because he voted against the Covenant.
More to come
THE introduction of the imported-pugua-tax bill following the administration’s announcement that businesses should pay more taxes so that the government can continue spending beyond its means doesn’t bode well for the struggling local economy. (Some elected officials are also saying that certain government employees should get paid more because they’re “deserving.” Who isn’t, come to think of it, when you’re spending other people’s money.)
The administration and its legislative allies are likely to propose other tax/fee hikes while talking about the need to “cut the costs of government,” but without significantly reducing government costs. Meanwhile, they will wait for a miracle to happen: a sudden increase in tourist arrivals, the entry of new (possibly deluded) investors, another influx of federal grants and other assistance, including military spending.
Not exactly “throwing a Hail Mary.” Just saying the Hail Mary.
Voters, for their part, can’t cast their ballots until Nov. 2024, but many of them are likely to vote with their feet if the local economy continues to spiral. That on top of the federally mandated CW exodus starting in September will worsen the current labor shortage and further complicate, if not prevent, economic recovery, which will further bankrupt the government, which will hobble its ability to pay employees, retirees, vendors.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be…
