Wobbly revenue

Our troubled financial situation is capped by a $30-million shortfall per the governor’s recent budgetary submission to the Legislature. It’s a tale of revenue generation headed south. It’s an issue to be mindful of as we spend what little we have in the coffers.

Be that as it may, revenue fluctuation is a reality in any fiscal year. But $30 million is steep. Has business expansion resurged to hopefully cover this hole? Or is it simply status quo, therefore the hole in perpetuity?

Now the Legislature eyes the easy way out: loans! Who pays for it other than quickly saddling taxpayers with another obligatory indiscretion? Caution! We the taxpayers aren’t as “stupid as we look”!

It’s economic contraction with far worse implications than meets the eye! It coincides with visitor decline for this month: South Korea 47 percent, China 17 percent and Japan, 59 percent. It means far less revenue up ahead! Is this clear or “not yet, already?”

Thoughtful disposition is contingent upon depth of vision and commitment by our men of wisdom in the disposition of scarce financial resources. Or would they brave peddling deception to boast a new forte in shallow politics?

Growth? Since local financial resources took a serious hit from two disastrous storms, doubled down by exit of Nippon investments, nothing has moved, e.g., non-resurgence of private industry expansion. None!

Doesn’t it translate to revenue decreases? It’s far less revenue and jobs in the process. It’s about the concept of wealth and jobs creation—a bus ride we missed—while waiting at the station.

Benefits: Money from the lease of NMD public land, its use, and the entire nine yards has generated a lot of discussion recently. It’s an issue that must be framed and primed for thoughtful review. At issue is the disposition of funds.

There’s the view to help the nearly 15,000 locals earning poverty income level in wages and salaries. But this could mean the exclusion of others who are equally owners of the same land. It’s easily employed to accommodate a misguided sense of compassion!

It’s collective ownership for NMDs, therefore disposition of funds must benefit all landowners! Ponder upon it.

Shift: If you recall the feds took labor and immigration authority from the CNMI in 2007 and 2008, respectively. We were already in a recession fast-tracked into what an economist calls “prolonged depression” when both authorities were removed. We’re still stuck in depression as conditions deteriorate beyond our wildest imaginings.

Moreover, the NMI is now prohibited from hiring construction workers from the Republic of the Philippines or CW workers.

The issue imploding without any realistic solution brings forth the question of leadership into the fold. If problems persist, who’s being negligent at this juncture?

Obviously, the NMI has been negligent, thus the severance of vital federal laws for its economic survival. Any chance resolving these issues with the feds or “not yet, already?”

Revisiting: We wrestled with “reintegration” with Guam in the late ’50s and early ’60s, solely founded on the dollar-an-hour minimum wage. It never dawned on us that even with reintegration, it means paying the dollar from taxes we pay into the local treasury. Gee! And we thought it was an automatic freebie!

Eventually we succeeded securing the current arrangement. It turned our focus into strengthening local self-government, working on revenue generation with prudence in their expenditure. There’s no room for error in the disposition of scarce fiscal resources. We’ve succeeded in this respect!

The Covenant Agreement provides for the 902 Talks where issues are refined. Unfortunately, it didn’t mean more freebies from across the sea. But it meant buckling down to pushing for private industry expansion to meet mounting obligations.

•••

Lights: When Yutu uprooted my lemon tree, it also ended the symphony of birds I’d hear at dawn, including the wind whistling through the trees in the yard.

The only thing left is the faithful grass downstairs that sigh for drizzles to soak roasted roots. This in the midst of a lengthy drought season.

In the quiet of the night I could sense the troubling hardship that has descended on villages. It’s in the faces of people in grocery stores, church, and elsewhere. The silent expression is a tale of village sentiment loaded with painful familial hardship. It all reverts to the wraths of poverty income at all levels, NMI-wide! The lights are on but is anybody home?