‘There will be furloughs’
REGARDING the governor’s State of the Commonwealth Address, Rep. Ed Propst on Tuesday said:
“To pretend that we’re not in a financial crisis or that we will not face one soon once the ARPA funding runs out is…dishonest, and we’re pretending that everything’s perfect when it’s not.” The SOCA, he added, “will not give a true portrayal of our cash flow projections or actual…financial situation and what the future looks like. There will be no mention of the fact that there will be furloughs. Anybody in this Commonwealth who believes that somehow miraculously after ARPA funding dries up without the help and aid from the feds [that] we’re going to somehow miraculously be able to support every job including 2,000 new hires is fooling themselves because money doesn’t grown on tangan-tangan and it doesn’t fall from the sky….”
Indeed.
Which is why many voters, for sure, would want to know how this year’s candidates, if elected or re-elected, would deal with the government’s looming financial implosion.
The candidates should answer the following questions:
Once the ARPA funds have been spent, who should be furloughed? How many? Government-pay should be reduced by how much?
Are you in favor of tax/fee hikes? Which taxes and fees? By how much?
Do you think that retirees should continue receiving their 25% benefit?
What are the possible economic — and political — consequences of laying off people and/or reducing their wages and imposing higher taxes amid rising cost-of-living?
Fourteen years ago
IN 2008, the local economy was almost as dismal as it is today. Government austerity measures were in effect. A freshman House member said the then-governor should be impeached, adding that “the people” were “ready for change.” The then-House speaker said the CNMI was facing its “deepest crisis.” “We see the economy collapsing and our power, our most important infrastructure, collapsing on a daily basis,” he added.
Thousands of local residents had moved to the states, Variety reported in Nov. 2008.
Rota’s lawmakers noted the “heavy exodus” of island residents while the then-Saipan mayor estimated that four families were “leaving every week.”
According to an economic report commissioned by the then-administration, the loss of local residents would further damage the economy because it was reducing the local labor force. “With no ability to replace those workers, the economy would slump even more,” the report stated. Moreover, “with no ability to expand its workforce, the economy will ultimately stagnate.”
The report added, “In light of the lack of jobs, a decline in the standard of living, a deteriorating public sector, and the right to move freely to the states, which offer much higher paying jobs, it would be surprising if a substantial number of U.S qualified residents did not leave the CNMI.”
“The past is never dead,” William Faulkner once said; “it’s not even past.”
