But it didn’t stop him and other officials from spending as though there was. Now, the usual austerity measures are not enough. Deep and permanent cuts are required to get this government back on its feet which also cannot occur without new business growth.
And so, once again, the governor threatens to invoke emergency measures to cope with the CNMI’s financial problems that got worse under his watch. Once again, he wants to overrun a well-established process laid out in the planning and budgeting law — and perhaps the new constitutional requirement that will trigger a government shutdown in the event that a new budget cannot be passed. But bad management is not an emergency.
The Legislature was earlier informed, pursuant to the planning and budgeting act, that revenue collections had dropped, requiring financial and budget adjustments. If revenue collections have dropped further, which everyone surmises has happened, then the budget projections must be pared back again, and more cuts have to be made accordingly. Will lawmakers finally do their job?
The government long ago reached the point of cutting critical public services, equipment acquisition and repair supplies as well as other tools needed to deliver essential public services. There were blackouts because the CUC couldn’t pay for maintenance and fuel deliveries. CHC keeps talking about hiring new doctors but that’s all it is, talk. Essential public services are already suffering.
Meanwhile, government retirees are shocked by the proposed cuts to life insurance benefits, not realizing that their generous retirement annuities are also at risk. In a recent move, the court increased government contributions from 18 to 30 percent, which the experts pegged as the true cost of keeping the Fund afloat. But that is like squeezing blood from a stone. The government can’t even pay 18 percent. Health insurance coverage, moreover, remains uncertain due to the government’s failure to pay carriers. Government employees may consider this a temporary condition — it is not.
The government, finally, can no longer ignore the choices that the private sector has made already. Wages and benefits must be reduced, including work-hours, but without sacrificing key services to the public. Spending must match actual collections.
There are, to be sure, many government employees deserving of every penny they are paid, but a lot of them occupy nonessential positions. In an ideal world, everyone would have the job they want and all the food they want to eat, but that world doesn’t exist. So even as the House minority leader expresses sympathy and solidarity with the lowest wage earner in government, he also demonstrates that he is out of step with reality, out of solutions and reduced to declaring the obvious: “Those who worked should be paid.” Of course. But there is a difference between employees with specialized knowledge that provide needed services and those who don’t. The government’s failure to spot this difference is one of the reasons why it is already broke.
It should also be abundantly clear to everyone that even austerity measures can’t support the current levels of government operations and retirement benefits. Something has to give. What will it be? Or will everyone simply capitulate to the casino option dangled by the administration and its allies as a cure-all for the commonwealth’s woes?
CNMI voters must realize that they made terrible choices in the last elections. But all is not lost. All power emanates from you the people. You can still use it, wisely, this time.
