Deepening hardship in paradise

By John S. Del Rosario

The food industry, like apparel manufacturing, rakes in marginal profits. But with the recent increases in fuel surcharge and new water rates, not to mention other impending increases from within and without, the tiny profit that we save for obligations diminishes. More of it will disappear in the near term. At stake is the lifespan of small businesses; all small shops are similarly situated.

We used to pay over $400 a month for utilities. We now pay $600 plus a month. We couldn’t even imagine what the spiraling cost will be when other increases saddle small businesses up ahead. These increases, coupled with a severe drop in business volume, lead all roads to eventual closure.

Indeed, our few remaining employees often walk about the kitchen with seeming blank looks. I know that they too are pondering their fate if and when we finally decide to close down somewhere in the near term. As a businessman, I quiz where I can scrounge up nickels and dimes to satisfy loans we’ve taken out to establish this business nearly three years ago.

Obviously, we dread the day when we lose properties, assets, and the only family home because we no longer have the means to meet our monthly obligations. It’s very troubling! And even with forced optimism, it seems that every factor we’ve reviewed paints a gloomy picture of what’s ahead. And if today is the future, we can fairly predict a far deepening hardship both for small businesses and consumers as well.

WHAT CAN THE GOVERNMENT DO?

The fight among politicians now centers on a single factor: no new money! Since six years ago or so, lasting investments (over 2,000) have closed up shop and gone home—permanently. These withdrawals translate into far less revenues for the NMI and far less jobs, too.

The mountain of fees and strangling regulations have done nothing but make the cost of doing business here fatally prohibitive. In the meantime, we await the deadly tsunami of more increases that will simply force smaller businesses to put up shutters. How then can the local government pay for its bloated payroll of more than $600,000 an hour?

The issue requires realistic resolve to save ourselves from ourselves. The government must voluntarily cut overhead expenses by 30-40 percent across the board in all three branches. In fact, all three branches of government must submit to desk audit of all positions to determine and subsequently eliminate excess and duplication.

If I may point out: At a certain department, there’s the request clerk, file clerk, an issuance clerk, an errand clerk, a retriever of records clerk—jobs that can be done by a single trained employee. Why are taxpayers paying for three more?

The hidden, though very costly, item often overlooked by people at the helm—use of cellular phone—must be limited to the governor, lieutenant governor, speaker and Senate president. Imagine the savings by just doing away with this luxury item. The same must be imposed on government vehicles. Let settle for stripped-down models of one each per agency.

All agencies that currently compete with the private sector must be shut down permanently. After all, they are not in the business of profit making so why punish taxpayers further with such excesses?

The benefits of information technology naturally rules out most junkets by government officials. Use teleconference and e-mails to talk to experts in medicine, environmental concerns, utilities, retirement issues and investments, lobbying on Capitol Hill, etc. Believe it or not, we can save over $4 million by using IT to the hilt. Hello, anybody home?

The bicameral legislative system must be trimmed immediately into a unicameral body comprised of 12 members, Marianas-wide. Here’s where we put the political maturation process to a test. Need we perpetuate a costly bicameral legislative system if the only benefit is conflicting, strangling and disorienting laws and regulations? So far, we have: After all is said and done, a lot more is said than done! Call it procrastination, the mother of grand complacency.

Finally, we come to a critical juncture in our developmental history where everybody is fighting everybody else because of the lack of money to pay for basic services. Complacency no longer has any place in our working vocabulary. We can do it if, and only if, we are willing to make sacrifices collectively, with real resolve to save ourselves from ourselves. And this change, albeit difficult, begins with the self. Let’s do it! Today! Si yuus maase`!

(John S. Del Rosario is a private businessman, chair of the Committee to Elect Ben and Tim, and the former publisher of the Saipan Tribune.)