Payless Paydays?
We know that the announcement of the likely payless payday (there are three government paydays this month) by the governor isn’t a trial balloon nor a facade to jolt the senses of government employees who seem indifferent to current economic conditions and and its relationship to their jobs. It is as real as you wanted to be.
The revenue plunge in double digit figures tells it all. The people who work the clock in the private sector have sought assistance from the local government in order to muddle through these difficult times. But there doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency to listen to their sentiments.
At the same time, the administration has sent various cost cutting measures to the legislature for review and consideration. What’s the status of these measures or will they ever come out of the two chambers, remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Interior isn’t interested in helping the NMI deal with the situation. But it has decided to underwrite the cost of the impending so-called economic summit in the midst of a deepening economic crisis. It depicts the arrogance and insensitivity of another layer of government that has failed, in grand fashion, to establish sound economic foundation in the region for 37 years.
The pieces to the puzzle of this serious economic setback is scattered all over the floor. And there doesn’t seem to be any coordinated effort to deal with the crisis other than the submission of proposals that have piled up in committees at the legislature.
The Public School System begins attrition programs in order to ensure that the education of our children isn’t compromised albeit difficult the challenge. The Department of Public Health and Environmental Services is in a bind with the likelihood of having to tell ambulatory and acute patients in the immediate future that the medicine they need isn’t available because there are no funds to buy them.
Meanwhile, the vacuum between now and the end of next year in terms of economic recovery is riddled with uncertainty. It boggles the mind how much longer can the remaining tourist related businesses withstand external and internal assaults. It doesn’t look good at this juncture.
The government payroll requires some $13 million per month to pay civil servants. If funds for next Friday’s payday (Dec. 18) are insufficient, it may mean that such would be the case for the rest of this and next year. It’s troubling, isn’t it?
What must be done to ease this situation? All civil servants must learn to sacrifice a portion of their usual salaries to enable the local government to continue delivering basic public services especially in education and health. This doesn’t include catastrophic illnesses which will require emergency off-island medical attention.
If critics still feel that the NMI’s dire financial straits is a “scare tactic”, take a closer look around the community especially this Christmas. Many of the people you represent won’t be able to meet St. Nick this Holiday Season. He’s gone north while we head south.
