The governor wants to spend CNMI government money to sue the feds over a law that will be implemented here sooner or later. The CNMI government is dead broke. Litigation, particularly of this kind, is a lengthy process, which means that the cost of the lawsuit will exceed the administration’s current estimate of $50,000 a month for eight months. The chances of its success, moreover, exist only in the minds of the governor’s legal advisers.
This is clearly an old and tired administration with nothing to offer to the suffering public but the failed policies of the past.
So what is the GOP House’s excuse then? Why do lawmakers need another closed-door meeting with the administration regarding a proposal that they should have rejected right away? Are some lawmakers expecting favors from the governor? Is that it?
We urge the more sensible lawmakers to speak out clearly and loudly against this doomed and costly lawsuit. Any concerns regarding the federalization law should be directed to the federal authorities drafting the implementing regulations. The CNMI government, including this administration, should cooperate with the feds to ensure that the law will not be the final kick in the teeth for the local economy that is already gasping for its last breath.
For their part, voters should remind the so-called opposition that they did not know they were electing more Yes men on the Hill last November, and that they, the voters, will make the necessary corrections next year.
VETERAN lawmakers say they want to “work” with the administration. “Work” how? And for whose benefit? If voters will ask themselves, “Are we better off today than we were in January when this Legislature was sworn in?” — what do the lawmakers think is the answer?
Did any of the 145 bills that the House introduced so far this year improve the island’s power situation, cut government costs, protect the pension system, boost tourism?
And whatever happened to the GOP’s “Agenda” last November? Is it another worthless set of campaign pledges like the party’s 2001 “Agenda”?
Lawmakers have no obligation to “work together” with an administration that has made the people’s lives more miserable than it should be. What the public expects from the 16th Legislature is to acquire a backbone and to oppose the administration’s misguided, imprudent and shortsighted policies and proposals.
You were elected to work for the people, and not with this failure of an administration.
THE governor says he can’t talk to the media because he’s too busy meeting with “investors” “day and night.” But, in a pre-recorded video, he told the public to “think about driving down Beach Road with 50 percent of the businesses gone. Think about Middle Road — same thing — 50 percent of the businesses are gone.”
Mr. Governor, we don’t think about this doomsday scenario. We are already experiencing it. We see empty buildings and establishments shutting down as we drive around the island. And businesses are dying because of your administration’s decision to double power rates and to allow CUC to run its power plants into the ground. You have also made it more difficult for businesses to maintain their workforce. Moreover, you have doubled several government fees and now you intend to double business license fees. And while the people suffer from these horrible power outages, you want to waste their money on a lawsuit. Against the feds. While assuring us that the feds will help solve the CNMI’s problems that have worsened under your watch.
Mr. Governor, you need better advisers. And the people deserve a better leader.
