A feud over needs

Dividing the pie or funds earmarked for Capital Improvement Projects for Fiscal Year 2000 would become even more heated under recommendation that the requirements of each senatorial district be limited strictly to basic needs.

Politicians have been informed that their pet projects would have to go in order for city hall to meet basic infrastructure needs of the three senatorial districts. This was prompted by the major decline in revenue generation, therefore, our inability to come up with local matching funds so required of the NMI by law. In other words, we must put up our share before we could draw down federal grants earmarked for CIP.

Perhaps, this is the first time in history when we must collectively face the painful lessons of learning to live with less for more. The limiting effects of less revenue makes meeting our end of the deal next to impossible. We’ve sought assistance from Washington for a waiver on this statutory requirement to no avail. Thus, we can only implement CIP projects based on our ability to pay for our share in matching funds.

The mayors may be miffed by the decision from the central government to pare down the number of projects for FY 2000. We hope it doesn’t get nasty to the point where the administration resorts to imposing a formula so contained under the Covenant on how grant funds are divided and distributed. We’ve had a long history of discontentment in the division of grant funds for CIP since the inception of our constitutonal government in 1978. It wouldn’t do anybody any good reviving strife and acrimony as the basis for irrational justification for additional CIP funds whe reality dictates otherwise.

The plummet in revenue generation over the past two years must be the worse nightmare for bureaucrats and politicians. What with the tendency to splurge in the middle of a deepening crisis, a crisis that has yet to bottom out, yet politicians treat with inconsequence. This attitude must go because we no longer have the funds in the public coffers to waste on pet projects “as we know it”. And it will get worse as we close-out this century, too.

Therefore, all must focus on getting back to basics with stronger resolve to guard the public coffers on how each penny is spent and whether in fact it would benefit a greater portion of the local populace or is it just another “feel good” and reckless expenditure of public funds often riddled with what’s politically correct rather than what’s politically right. The consequence of ill-conceived decisions would eventually catch up with us beyond our wildest imaginings. It is for this reason that we must patiently tread the deepening crisis with greater sense of responsibility and accountability. We owe it to no one else except ourselves!