Editorials

Owie? ACCORDING to a lawmaker, the most disappointing thing about the Hyatt’s impending closure is that they, the powers that be, were not informed beforehand. In fairness, the lawmaker may have misspoken. Surely he believes that what is truly most disappointing is the news that 146 employees (most…

‘Harsh realities’ THE CNMI’s post-pandemic tourism arrival numbers have remained so low — if not at rock-bottom levels — that reasonable people expect some significant improvements this year. After all, the islands’ primary market, Korea, continues to recover, and Hong Kong Airlines has just resume…

Oh the impunity DUMPING household trash in the COP area has been in the news since the late 1970s or even earlier — even before there was a hotel and golf resort there.  Despite the prohibition on littering by the Trust Territory government, MV’s news files suggest that litter bugs were a cause for…

That is the question THE administration seems to believe — or it wants us to believe — that federally funded capital improvement projects can help revive the sputtering local economy. In the past, however, every time the local economy took off it was because of a significant increase in tourist arr…

The new rubber-stampers THE Senate was doing its job when it did not rubber-stamp an administration proposal that was rubber-stamped by the House of Representatives in a heartbeat. House Bill 23-104 would take away over $5 million from CEDA so elected officials can continue paying a spending item —…

Government overspending, fiscal turbulence IN a House session last week, Rep. Vincent “Kobre” Aldan said out loud what many other elected officials can only mutter among themselves: The government is running out of money because it overspends. This is a problem for many governments around the world…

Where’s the ARPA report? IT’S been over a year since the new administration promised to provide the public with a full accounting of the CNMI government’s ARPA expenditures. Prior to ARPA, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the CNMI government was facing budget deficits amounting to $64.8 mill…

Finally IT took over a year before the administration and the Legislature can say that they will have to act soon to address the CNMI’s urgent fiscal challenges. They mentioned these challenges during the campaign season in 2022, and shortly after they were sworn in last year. They were supported b…

And the funding source is? CUC says the central government, which owes over $11 million in unpaid utility bills, will make an initial payment of $400,000 by April 1st, and submit a payment plan for the rest of its arrears. The central government’s “awakening” seems to have been triggered by the U.S…

Cut government spending instead ABOUT two weeks ago, the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee conducted a public hearing on the tax-hike measures that were passed (i.e., rubber-stamped) by the House, and expressed concerns about their rationale. As the Senate floor leader noted, raising taxes on commodi…