He probably believed that taking a “hardcore” stance against the central government would win him the retirees’ votes without costing him the support of the other sectors in the community. He’s wrong and I still couldn’t believe that a veteran politician would fail to foresee the consequences of a winner-take all approach against the government, which also happens to be the main employer of locals, i.e., voters.
The central government has never been against paying the Retirement Fund. No one is. And putting the Fund’s chairman on the spot regarding the lawsuit — the costs of which he has yet to disclose — is not an expression of opposition to the Fund’s long-term viability.
It was never a question of whether the government should pay the Retirement Fund, but how.
No one, moreover, has any sympathy with this government and its wasteful spending habits, and yet any solution to the Retirement Fund’s problems starts and ends with the same government.
We should all remember that this government has been sued in the past for its other obligations — over MRC and land compensation, for example — and the results are still not good for the plaintiffs who, despite winning their lawsuits, are yet to be paid.
The government simply has so many obligations to so many people.
What the CNMI needs now are leaders who can see the entire picture, make judicious decisions that will minimize the pain for everyone, while ensuring that the government can meet all of its pressing obligations.
The Fund’s lawsuit, in any case, will not “punish” the governor or the lawmakers, even though we would like to think that it does. But forcing the government to pay the Retirement Fund now regardless of its other obligations will certainly hurt rank and file government employees and members of the community who depend on certain public services.
Because of the trial court’s ruling, austerity measures have become inevitable. There will be reduced hours as well as paycuts and lowly paid employees will be the first to feel the crunch, which they will remember in November.
Right now we hear a lot of criticisms regarding what the administration and Legislature, past and present, “did” to the Retirement Fund, but when the same government was enacting those generous retirement benefits no one complained. The retirement system wasn’t a problem until someone realized that it was, basically, a Ponzi scheme.
But pointing fingers won’t help “rescue” the Retirement Fund. The same government blamed for doing the things the people wanted it to do needs to do something else, now, but what?
Some of the retirees have proposed drastic cuts in government spending and tax hikes, but no one has pointed out whether these are politically feasible. I would like to hear former Senator Juanpan, for example, publicly stating that he will lay off people and raise taxes. I’m waiting.
No one apparently has also noticed that this government’s main expenditure is payroll. The government remains the only employer in the CNMI that can offer U.S. citizens decent wages because the private sector, whose leaders include those who are now advocating mass layoffs, opposed — and continue to oppose — a wage hike while clinging to a foreign labor-dependent economy.
The Retirement Fund lawsuit, sadly, pits the retirees against current government employees. There should be a better way to resolve this crisis.
Now although government employees and their families are, unlike retirees, unwilling to write letters to the editor, they do vote in elections and there are a lot of them.
This controversy at any rate will drag on throughout the rest of the year. But the real solutions, those that are politically viable, will be possible only after the new administration and Legislature are sworn in next year.
Meanwhile, enjoy the hot air.
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