This government presided over two economic boom periods only to squander revenue on the hiring of political supporters and the creation of unsustainable dole-out programs. Now it’s broke and its “solution” is not to reduce its size nor live within its means but to seize any funding source that still exists in this economy. Like a drug addict, this government wants its “fix” and it wants it now.
The QC program, in any case, was supposed to attract new investments. CNMI elected officials, however, used it to “reward” their crony capitalists who were already doing business here. To “protect” local control over minimum wage and immigration, they also picked a fight with the feds, thereby ensuring the inevitable loss of what made investing in the CNMI attractive.
The economy, in fact, started its downward slide in 1998, but CNMI officials continued to overspend and misgovern. They kept the wages in the private sector down while making government employment more attractive than it already was.
Now the speaker and the former governor are claiming that it’s all the QC program’s fault — while assuring the chamber of commerce that current beneficiaries will continue receiving their tax breaks!
But that’s now all. In defending their proposals to suspend or scrap the QC program, Cabrera and Tenorio said — believe it or not — that the CNMI “should not give up tax revenues to support the economies of the Philippines [and] China….” Imagine that. The CNMI doing a huge favor to China, the world’s second largest economy, and the P.I. which has 11 million people working all over the globe. At one point, the CNMI hosted over 15,000 of China’s 1.3 billion people and 20,000 of the P.I.’s population of 93 million. Do the math, as another former governor once said.
So why did Cabrera and Tenorio have to mention foreigners? Because they’re playing to the gallery. They are appealing to the public’s worst instincts even at the expense of the truth.
There was, however, no need to resort to shameless and shameful race-baiting. They could have written a letter to the chamber commerce containing only this sentence: “We need all the public revenues we can generate in these desperate times, and we cannot increase those revenues if we continue to exempt companies from paying taxes.” That was all they needed to say. It was the only sentence in their letter that was not a lie.
And this begs the question. Did they even read their letter that was obviously written by someone else?
Good news
THE Zoning Office says it will now enforce regulatory provisions that aim to enhance the appearance of the island by paying attention to signs, the maintenance of public easements, the elimination of visual eyesores along the roadside, and enforcement of sanitation rules. This is good news for residents and visitors alike.
Perhaps this will “inspire” the Department of Public Works to submit an application to the U.S. Department of Transportation for the improvement and replacement of traffic signs, traffic and pedestrian lights, road and highway markings that have all but disappeared especially at night. All this will improve security and safety of public roads.
And while the roads and maintenance crews make their way around island, clearing the underbrush and cutting hedges, maybe those cows that were banned from the Marpi area can be permitted re-entry for the purpose of speeding up the grass-cutting program up north. After all, the cows add to the pastoral scene in Marpi. They are also harmless and their waste is premier composting material.
