This is exactly how the Retirement Fund mess was created in the first place with administrations and legislators knowingly passing laws that are unconstitutional on its face, confident that no challenge will be mounted and no one will care. Denying the Office of the Public Auditor its constitutionally mandated budget is only the start of the list of problems with the new budget law yet legislators are congratulating each other, satisfied that they have averted another partial government shutdown, as though that would be a catastrophe.
The catastrophe is yet to come. And it will come as the result of a failure to guide the Retirement Fund through a rational reduction of members and benefits.
The Retirement Fund, for its part, has finally articulated a position regarding Speaker Cabrera’s proposal to allow current government employees with nine to 15 years of service to withdraw their contributions. The Fund says a withdrawal of that magnitude would hasten the demise of the pension agency. The number of government employees is revealing. It seems there are 2,900 government employees with nine to 15 years of service, excluding the newest employees and those with 15 and more years of service. In other words, the government is the only entity that has made no significant fiscal adjustments amid a worsening economy.
The private sector continues to make large cuts in personnel and costs in response to the economic slowdown that is compounded by the appalling mismanagement and staggering incompetence on Capital Hill. Yet in a recent meeting with USCIS, some lawmakers actually whined about the CW cap, which they say is “too high.” Do they really believe that the remaining businesses on island can afford to hire over 20,000 guest workers? Aren’t they aware that most companies have already reduced their workforce and work hours and that the islands’ economic malaise is expected to persist for the next 10 years? But reporters were around during the lawmakers’ meeting with USCIS, and veteran politicians wanted to make sure that they were on the record saying the things they think local voters wanted to hear.
The reality is that there are far fewer jobs in the private sector for anyone than what these political dinosaurs think. Half require technical skills and the other half are jobs locals typically don’t want. In the developed world, domestic work, agricultural and other unskilled jobs are left for migratory laborers, mostly foreigners. Of course, there are jobs that can and ought to be filled by qualified U.S. citizens but that will come to pass at a much slower pace as long as the CNMI government’s primary constituency is its own employees. And with the tax and minimum wage increases looming on the horizon, there will be even fewer jobs for anyone.
Your politicians, however, couldn’t care less. They will simply make the same old campaign promises that worked so well in the past, and most of you, come Election Day, will believe them, again.
