The $15-million loan

The NMI has taken out a $15-million loan from the Marianas Public Land Trust for storm-related recovery costs. Understood the necessity. Rebuilding has begun!

Be that as it may, there are questions about the review process. For instance, did we employ due diligence to check whether in fact we have sufficient funds to pay for a new loan atop current obligations?

Is your finding satisfactory, including NMI liquidity, in the event something doesn’t pan out as planned?

Or am I boasting my juvenile understanding of finance and accounting therefore, inconsistent and irrelevant? But it’s hard reconciling economic contraction against a decision to saddle the NMI with another huge loan. Is it a GOP innovation, piling more debts on an already financially challenged government? Why the ignorance in arrogance?

Debts

Deficit spending is bad all around and the obvious query is: what happens next fiscal year when we fall short of revenues once more? Where else do we borrow and by how much? It requires some thoughtful planning, right?

It’s clear MPLT funds are supposed to be invested. Is a loan for the NMI an “investment?” Where does pertinent constitutional law say MPLT funds could be used for loan purposes? Or was this the concoction of politicians who found another cookie jar to raid? Why the lack of prudence in spending?

Investments?

Understood the unplanned expenses from superstorms slammed deeper into debt territory by the exit of Nippon investments. It contributed to the huge economic contraction we never saw coming nor have we any idea of its negative impact at this point in time. But its effects have started to haunt us today.

It’s a major contraction; does it matter? Or are Da Boysis pleasantly boasting negligence and disorientation once more?

It’s a mind-numbing issue that requires immediate review of the strength of current revenue contraction versus obligations. It’s called planning! It’s a matter of taking an ocular review of what’s in the treasury versus every obligation in the books.

The exit of Nippon investments leaves behind far more serious economic setback than meets nimble eyes. Have you collectively addressed the issue to see its negative economic implications or “not yet, already?” Whatever happened to your “depth of vision” and conviction?

Downsize

We’ve heard ostentatious spouts about the need to cut back spending. I approached a legislator to asked for the truth behind the pronouncement. He smiled, giggling, “We want to sound good”.

What he didn’t say was, “We want to do the same”—ignore it altogether and wait for the ink to dry off the pages of the papers. A perfect recipe to ignore fiduciary duty! It has turned into a self-destructive political culture!

We instantly trash conviction on matters that really require resolve. The new culture of complicity is a more convenient excuse over keeping resolve responsibly.

Investments

The salvation to fiscal stagnancy is the resurgence of investments from private industries here. In this regard, it’s good to know of plans by an investor for a thousand-room hotel. It means a bit more money and jobs for the island. But is there any other investor following behind?

Behind the stagnancy is the greater query: whatever happened to others who joined the NMI in the mid-sixties with new investments? Have they factually taken their investments and placed them on airplanes on the way home permanently? This is the issue the elected elite must come to terms with to ensure the improvement of the quality of life here.

Race-based

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled as unconstitutional the Guam law limiting voting on the status question to the indigenous people.

Further north is land alienation law that falls in the same category. At issue meriting legal protection is a citizen’s rights. Landownership is a citizen’s right!

About the only time the NMI’s land alienation could stand on its own is when we’re a sovereign country. Under the Stars and Stripes Forever, we are a subserviency of our national government—U.S. of A! Under the system it’s the principle of a citizen’s right to own property regardless of ethnicity.

Kudos

Recent news accounts of policymakers in Puerto Rico and Baltimore assert that politicians from these jurisdictions are corrupt and corrosive. Politicians have simply abandoned fiduciary duty, leaving millions of people in abject poverty. Interesting phenomenon how they disappear when duty warrants their taking front and center to alleviate the miseries of those stuck in abject poverty. Humiliating!