Editorials

Piecemeal ‘transparency’ IN its latest financial report to the Legislature, the administration provided additional information about the pension obligation bond it issued, which was unknown to the public at the time. Now we’re told that the loan agreement was signed in December 2024, and the amount…

A tale of two jurisdictions THE words “Puerto Rico,” “best practices,” and “territory economic opportunities” are seldom strung together in a sentence, except when one is being ironic. But according to the administration’s latest newsletter, the CNMI Department of Commerce participated in an “Econo…

Respect reality THE CNMI Department of Commerce aims to be “business-friendly,” and so do some lawmakers. Bravo. To begin with, they and other government agencies and officials should be more supportive of their primary source of local funding: local businesses big or small. How? Rather than attemp…

Good politics, bad economics THE governor’s Jan. 17 letter to the Legislature’s presiding officers serves as an update to the CNMI government’s FY 2025 budget. It is a peculiar letter. On one hand, the governor noted the government’s “acute short-term cash flow challenges”; on the other hand, he ma…

 A tourism-based economy needs (wait for it) tourists  EVEN before the Japanese company that owned the local Hyatt decided to close and leave the island, tourism stakeholders had been warning CNMI officials about alarmingly low arrival rates and their potential to trigger more business closures. Su…

Economically unsound IN his latest report to the Legislature, the governor reiterated his administration’s intent to “invest…in infrastructure and workforce development to create a diverse economy that’s resilient and not reliant on factors beyond our control.” Who wouldn’t support that? It ticks a…

Where we at HAS anyone else noticed that the governor’s oral pronouncements on tourism and the economy — more often than not — differ from his written statements? In interviews, the governor, who has been in politics for a very long time, usually sounds like the sensible and practical leader that h…

2024 was not an improvement over 2023, which was a bad year for the CNMI. As you read this, the islands’ financial bleeding continues.  Meanwhile, to paraphrase Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, the administration continues to push on a door that has been clearly marked “pull.” After two years of the go…

‘No more’ ARPA funds — except when there are AFTER being sworn in, and until recently, the administration’s usual comment on ARPA funds was that its predecessor had already spent or “overcommitted” them — in short, that there were “no more” ARPA funds. Hence, the termination of over 300 (some say 5…

Set aside the words and focus on the actions NOW and then, government officials will rhapsodize about the importance of small businesses, and how deserving they are of government (that is, taxpayer) assistance. In February 2023, for example, the then-newly sworn-in governor announced the creation o…