Editorials

Don’t delay budget passage  AS in the past several years, a budget proposal has been submitted by the governor to the Legislature on the first day of April — six months before the start of the new fiscal year. Once again, lawmakers have absolutely no excuse to drag out the budget process to the ver…

The good ol’ days? ABOUT 21 years ago, the local media (breathlessly) reported that CNMI officials and educators “have initiated steps to organize a special task force which will take the lead in preparing students acquire necessary skills that will land them competitive jobs in the future.” The Le…

Regarding the judiciary’s proposed FY 2022 budget LIKE many other government entities not getting a chunky serving of the federal relief monies that will be ladled to the CNMI, the judiciary wants more funding from the Commonwealth government…which has so many other obligations. Like many other gov…

The sky is still not falling REGARDING House Bill 22-33, let’s take the House majority bloc’s statements at face value: they want accountability and transparency, and they don’t trust the governor. That is their political opinion. Perfectly understandable, really, because if the shoe is on the othe…

Federal Cavalry to the rescue A BIG thank you to Congressman Kilili for ensuring that the CNMI, which is facing an economic disaster, is included in the $1.9 trillion federal rescue package. He says he will continue to look for more federal funding opportunities, including for CUC projects. Based o…

Death by a thousand fees PUBLIC Law 21-42 will supposedly discourage “fly-by-night” importers by requiring excise tax payment prior to the release of cargo. When the legislation was still being discussed by lawmakers, local businesses pointed out, in so many words, that the biggest delinquent and/o…

There ought to be a better way WAGE hike proponents say they want to “put more money into the pockets of working people.”  Right on.  But what if a wage-hike results in reduced work-hours or even unemployment for the working people? Surely the wage-hike proponents do not support that. In the CNMI, …

Hope and spare change SINCE Yutu and Covid-19, the CNMI government’s most pressing concern is lack of funding. The local economy is shrinking. What’s left of it is not generating the amount of revenue that the government must collect. As for the government’s annual budget, take note that it is larg…

EICFWFA  THE House majority bloc members have introduced H.B. 22-19, the earned income tax credit or EITC bill with a clunky and grandiloquent title, “End Income Crush for Working Families Act.” We notice, however, that the bill doesn’t tell us the whole story about the EITC program in the CNMI. Th…

Step up to the plate, for once THE possible “solutions” to the CNMI government’s worsening financial crisis were discussed in spring last year by a federally funded fiscal summit just a few weeks after the local tourism industry was shut down by the Covid-19 pandemic. The recommendations included t…