Hence, this eagerness to reward a Covenant supporter with the LB director’s post, and the brazen announcement regarding another increase in fees on top of government paycuts.
Now why should a supposedly “pro-business” ruling party want to raise, yet again, the cost of doing business in an economy that has shown no signs of improvement under four years of Covenant misrule? It is as if the long-suffering consumers and companies are expected to show more appreciation for the privilege of conducting business that generates revenue for the operations of this bloated, overpaid and incompetent government.
Few people would complain about raising fees and taxes if only their government would provide what the community expects in return: public service. They wouldn’t mind to see their fees and taxes go to CHC so it can hire physicians and technical staff, purchase medical supplies and equipment, among other things that will improve healthcare in the CNMI. The public, moreover, would not complain if fees and taxes are used to upgrade the look of the Garapan district and complement the improvements put in the ground by the previous governor.
As it stands, however, taxpayers are fed up with increases whose goal is to put more employees on government dole.
The administration’s original FY 2010 budget proposal amounts to $150 million, most of which will fund the salaries of non-essential government employees. Now the Covenant House wants to raise the budget by another $5 million, most likely to hire more non-essential employees.
This tax-and-hire policy will further increase the size of government at the expense of essential services while dragging the economy down, if that is still possible.
Is this what the people of the CNMI want?
The audacity of Ben
WHILE the administration squirms in embarrassment over yet another self-inflicted scandal, the AG’s office is fighting the federal government’s efforts to get into the bottom of massage-gate. The AGO wants to prevent witnesses associated with this incident from coming to court to testify on various matters related to the “release” from custody of a person charged with illegal entry to Guam.
The AG, however, has to explain to the people of the CNMI why his office is acting as counsel in a non-official, very personal matter. The governor and the correction officers involved should pay for their own lawyers. The governor, as he himself has stated, was making a “personal request,” and these correction officers were clearly responding to this request on the basis of their long-standing personal relationship with their boss.
And what is the opposition lawmakers’ reaction to the governor’s abuse of power and the AGO’s misplaced sense of duty? The House Republicans, believe it or not, wrote a letter. To the governor’s AG. To request for more “facts.”
In any case, the administration’s spin seems to be that since the masseuse was accompanied from her jail cell to the governor’s residence by correction officers, she was technically in custody the whole time.
If this “technicality” is allowed, then imagine what parole measures can be arranged for everyone else in the correction facilities. An inmate could pay the corrections officers to escort him on various private matters and the system wouldn’t be harmed in anyway because he is technically in custody.
This could be a novel way to approach incarceration. It could even turn into a money-making proposition for this administration, which, as you may remember, once considered hosting a marijuana legalization conference.
The people, to be sure, have sympathy with the governor’s physical disability. But in the CNMI’s system of government, no one is above the law and elected officials cannot commandeer public resources for their private purposes. To do so is to break the law.
Will the people of the CNMI finally demand accountability from their erring officials?
