REPRESENTATIVE Stanley T. Torres says the administration still lacks a strategic economic plan six months after it was sworn into office. Actually, the administration has a plan of sorts, somewhat involving the economy, but it appears to be neither strategic nor even a plan to begin with. It consists of securing more federal funding, the revival of the tourism industry and the implementation of cost-cutting measures.
Why does this “plan” sounds familiar? Because it was first implemented by the previous administration—with stunning results. The economy, that is, was so stunned it now appears stunted.
In an interview more than a week ago, the governor and the lt. governor even went out of their way to praise their predecessor’s austerity measures. (Yes, the one that BB supporters once called the “austerity for us prosperity for them” measures.) This newspaper has never been impressed by such cost-cutting measures because, as we said in past editorials, why should we praise the government for not spending money it DOESN’T have? The real challenge for the previous administration was to revive the economy and to produce more revenue for the government so it could implement all the beautiful promises it made during the election campaign. The previous administration did no such thing. Its efforts were so feeble that it appeared to be doing nothing at all. And that is why this administration and its allies in the Legislature—who appear to be getting fewer and fewer—are in for a rude awakening in the 2003 midterm elections if they think that stuporic governance would work for them. True, the Teno administration had a lengthy honeymoon with lawmakers and the independent press, but that was due to the former governor’s immense political skills which included patience when dealing with onion-skinned prima donnas of the Legislature, and the fact that the economy then was not as bad as it is now.
And now, the government’s dismal financial condition is also getting worse. Several agencies have to make do with less and this is why criticism of junkets and relatively better paid appointees resonate in the community.
To revive the economy, the administration has to do something as forceful as its defense of Chuck Jordan’s contract. The vigor with which administration officials pursue every opportunity to go on a junket and to stage press conferences for non-funded but grandiose initiatives should also be directed toward reviving the economy, which is in a virtual coma. Wiping its brow won’t do at all. Wishing that it would get better won’t work either. It can only recover if this administration implements forceful and courageous measures. To do so, however, the governor has to have a strategic economic plan that pinpoints specific areas that require specific actions. It has never been a secret, for example, that to raise revenue the government can privatize certain agencies, float bonds and raise government fees. Increasing the poker license fee is a first step but the extra revenue from it will be a mere drop in the bucket. Whatever happened to the proposed user’s fee increase anyway?
The administration, at any rate, can still catch up. It can still snap out of its self-imposed lethargy. Considering the type of opposition politicians waiting on the sidelines, it has to for the commonwealth’s sake.
