Unfunded liability

At Issue: A salary increase for overpaid government employees we can ill-afford may be headed to court.

Our View: Such law reflects the inability of policy makers to grasp the depth of the deepening economic crisis.

It would require some $9-plus million to pay for salary increases under a law approved several years ago. And news that some employees under the former administration of Governor Froilan C. Tenorio were paid such increase while most others were denied such perk may just as well trigger a class action suit.

Then there’s another statutory mandate to raise the salaries of retirees who worked for the local government within a specified period. This too would require a substantial amount in the millions of dollars to fulfill the letter of the law.

These actions usually surface around an election year illustrates in crystal clear fashion the willingness of politicians to cripple the local government, including the now solvent Northern Marianas Retirement Program. Evidently, they are willing to push for Payless Fridays for both regular public sector employees and retirees.

Indeed, it is easy to push for what amounts to unfunded liability, i.e.,] salary increases to overpaid public sector employees without identifying resources to support such increase. It comes at a time in our developmental history when the economy continues its downward spiral in terms of revenue generation. There’s a lot wrong with such adolescent scheme and definitely something can be done about it.

It would be good to find out who among employees under the former administration were paid the new salary increase. Cronies and all must be forced to repay such increase to strike some semblance of fairness to a perk that apparently has been allowed unequal application in favor of the politically connected. This form of corruption has no place in public office!

In the process, politicians have employed their cyclopic vision as to brave chancing bringing the Retirement Program to its knees by slowly, though in whopping fashion, drain the program of its solvency. It’s the picnic attitude at best, a sure ticket to bankrupting both the local government and the retirement program at worse. This chancy adolescent attitude also confirms the notion that most policy makers are out to drain the local government of its last pennies.

We strongly recommend that a legislative initiative be pushed to require an impact study on every measure proposing to use locally generated funds. If the means isn’t available, the measure must be shot down from the outset. It’s a sure way to discouraging the approval of irresponsible unfunded programs as we have seen under the two recent statutory mandates. Si Yuus Maase`!