Equal application of utility rate reduction

It is a good move on the part of the utility agency to generously reduce utility rates for the local government which owes CUC some $6.8 million. But this decision must be made equally applicable to the business sector and all residential areas here.

There are obvious reasons why the board of directors of CUC must buckle down to equal application of policy: nobody is spared the ravaging effects of the Asian Crisis from businesses (more 2,000 of whom have shut their doors because of our agility to assist them) to families all across this island who are also struggling by the day to make ends meet.

Many are victims of a necessary evil–reduction in work hours–so that the business or government agency they are attached to can ably meet payroll and debt service. Some aren’t quite so lucky when they were told that they are included in the rif program (reduction in force) or that their work hours would be reduced an hour a week until further notice. It’s such shocking news so forced upon them by an external influence we now use daily as our mouth wash.

For those in the reduction in work hours category, they are quite fortunate that some money still trickles in to meet basic family needs. Still, the reduction in work hours is a hefty cut for a family of four who have relied on that regular family income to meet filial obligations. But a portion of it are denied them because of the worsening financial posture of agencies and businesses where they find their family’s bread and butter.

Reluctantly, too, I refuse to accept family conditions where members borrow from each other to ward-off a collection agency or the banks. But it is happening and the of my personally confirming this troubling trend was the saddest day of my life. I’ve seen too many parents dazed and tearfully troubled by their inability to give their college bound kids some money as they head off to colleges in Hawaii and the US mainland. And while they can take solace in the local scholarship program, we all know that there isn’t sufficient funds to meet this responsibility either.

The business community is in no better position either especially tourist related businesses. The number of visitors has spiraled downward which translates to lower business volume. These businesses have employees to pay which include health insurance, health examination, bonding, not to mention quarterly payment of business gross receipts tax and other taxes. On top of it all, they too must fork out a sizable amount monthly to pay for utilities. Have we done anything to help them muddle through this crisis or have we grandly piled-up more strangling regulations with a simplistic and arrogant, if not, ignorant view or all of the above of “sink or swim”?

I hope CUC takes a proactive leadership in this matter. I further hope that none of the well paid top guns in government must first take a “fearful walk through the valley and ravines of hardship in order to understand what’s down there”. Please do not repeat Interior’s OIA’s purposeful exclusion of the NMI from the benefits of our mother country’s “economic good times”. Alienation, discrimination and insensitivity aren’t answers to building a healthy community. Si Yuus Maase` yan ghilisow!
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The financially troubled Tokyo metropolitan government plans to cut employee salaries and bonuses over a four-year period by 200 billion yen starting next fiscal year. Who says tourism would rebound? This industry won’t see the day of light for the next five to ten years. But never lose hope. Eh, something right may break even if it is confined to the figment of our imagination.