Editorials

No choice FOUR months after declaring that the state of the CNMI was “getting better,” the administration removed its rose-colored glasses and took a hard, long look at the government’s actual situation — it was not pretty. In a joint press conference on Monday, the governor admitted that the “real…

It’s a start REGARDING the PSS budget — specifically, the government’s inability to meet PSS’s full request — a lawmaker complained about the “bloated salaries” of PSS administrative personnel. Fair enough. But what about the bloated salaries and overstaffing in many — if not most — CNMI government…

Backward march! INTERESTING choice of words by the education commissioner. The CNMI is going backwards in education, he said, referring to PSS’s shrinking budget. Sadly, this is true not only in education. More than two years ago, the CNMI leadership decided to cast its lot with the feds and to “tr…

Tell us something we don’t know DIVERSIFYING the local economy has been a topic of discussion in the CNMI since at least the late 1970s, and it led to the establishment of the garment industry in 1983. At its peak in 1999, the industry remitted $39.3 million (worth about $76.2 million today) in use…

Not a rosy picture THE House version of the FY 2026 budget bill — a more realistic take on the administration’s original proposal — is still pending in the Senate. Senators are expected to offer amendments or even draft their own version, which is par for the course. The goal, in any case, is to tr…

For real THE administration’s original FY 2026 budget proposal — projecting more than $20 million in new revenue — leaned heavily on a pension obligation bond, “special revenue funds, federal funds, and funds from autonomous agencies.” It also hinted at “innovative, sustainable revenue-generating m…

The dog ate their homework THAT was just too sloppy, even for House members. We’re referring to their inexcusable failure to act on an executive order that their own legal counsel said is unconstitutional. The Senate legal counsel reached the same conclusion. Again, this is not about whether the Co…

Left hand, say hello to right hand IN May 2025, the late Gov. Arnold I. Palacios said he had tasked the Office of Planning and Development to push a federally funded CNMI economic recovery study. The goal was to provide “a comprehensive strategy to guide the CNMI toward long-term economic recovery,…

Fingers crossed ELECTED officials who believe that to govern is to tax and spend should ensure there is an economy capable of generating the taxes they wish to spend. They cannot take the existence of that economy for granted. They cannot skip Step 1 (economic growth) and go straight to Steps 2 and…