We couldn’t agree more
TO paraphrase former President Obama: Let us be clear.
The CNMI is not facing an “unprecedented crisis,” if by “crisis” we mean the CNMI government’s insolvency and the local economic downturn. Both have existed before the establishment of the Commonwealth government in 1978, and both persisted for many more years after its inauguration. Apparently, however, not a lot of us still remember that for several years, the self-governing CNMI government was totally dependent on federal funds.
An overspending if not misspending yet broke government, and a local economy battered now and then by natural disasters or unforeseen global events beyond our control — such, it seems, is the “natural state” of these remote, faraway small islands with a small (and shrinking) population.
But it is also undeniable that the CNMI, using what few economic tools it had, managed to create a thriving economy in the late 1980s, and again in the mid-2010s. These “booms” were propelled by the tourism industry and new investments, both of which require an adequate workforce as well as pro-growth and job-creating rules.
So far, the new administration has indicated that it knows what it should aim for to somewhat improve the local economy — or at least to not make things worse for the business community (a.k.a., the government’s revenue generator).
Governor Palacios, for example, has publicly stated that he doesn’t want to “raise taxes again and impose the penalty on the businesses and the people of the Commonwealth because of the misappropriation [and] misdeeds [of] government officials.” Well and good.
He has also urged U.S. lawmakers to repeal the onerous CW touchback provision, and pass Congressman Kilili’s H.R. 560 to stabilize the local economy and population. In addition, the governor has asked the U.S. government to “break the bottlenecks holding up” federal assistance. He is seeking “fixes in federal policy to help us move hundreds of millions of federal dollars in stalled projects.” Right on.
If implemented, these policy pronouncements and proposals will provide immediate relief to an ailing local economy. At the very least, they will do no further harm.
Go for it
IN his remarks at the Saipan Chamber of Commerce Economic Forum over a week ago, the governor said “it cannot be business as usual.” Previous newly elected officials had said, more or less, the same thing — but we expect the new governor to be a man of his word.
He also mentioned that he will “revisit” the recommendations discussed during the 2020 Fiscal Response Summit. Hence, we expect him to take a long, hard look at the existing government structure so he can 1) identify departments, agencies, programs and other entities that have overlapping or similar functions; and 2) determine which should be merged or eliminated.
Here’s another (popular) cost-cutting recommendation worth “revisiting”: Reduce the size of the Legislature from 20 representatives to 10, and nine senators to six. If nothing else, it could cut the number of ill-conceived, poorly drafted or downright bad laws enacted each year.
To quote the then-lt. governor’s remarks during the Fiscal Response Summit, implementing these and similar cost-cutting proposals “is not going to be easy, but to the extent that we can, we will work to minimize the impact and the pain.”
Hear, hear.
