Local threats

It’s bad enough that we have to fear and dread a possible U.S. Federal takeover, of which several attempts have already been made–but do we also have to fear our own local government as well? Apparently so.

Consider the bill recently proposed by the enlightened members of our very own legislature. Evidently, after allowing Anthony Pellegrino to run up enormous Smiley Cove cost overruns and then turn away Japanese tourists, the legislature now wants to force all local boat owners to use the “marina” for their own “safety.” How utterly remarkable and incredible!

Our own local government wants to deprive our businessmen and citizens of liberty by forcing a monopoly down their throats. They want to force all Managaha and Tinian-bound passengers to use MRC’s Outer Cove facility.

The bill is a moral outrage. It should be categorically rejected at the earliest possible opportunity. Any legislator who signed on to such a bill should be thrown out of office in the next general election.

In light of recent developments, it is quite obvious that the MRC lease should never have been approved in the first place. Now our esteemed “leaders” wish to compound matters further by thrusting this contemptible piece of legislation upon the boating and tourism industries–ostensibly, all for the benefit of one man, MRC President Anthony Pellegrino–the consummate private planner.

In fact, in order to benefit (bail out?) this one private citizen (at the expense of many others), our elected leaders are now even willing to seriously compromise the Commonwealth Ports Authority, which is already suffering enormously from financial shortfalls amid a persistently sluggish economy.
Apparently, our very own local legislature is willing to forgo CPA’s docking revenues just to grant the Marine Revitalization Corporation its undeserved monopoly.

For the expressed benefit of one unreliable private corporation, private boat owners are to be deprived of their freedom to choose to dock at alternative facilities, including those operated by the cash-strapped Commonwealth Ports Authority? For the benefit of a single corporation, the local government is willing to prohibit open market competition, to deny free choice, and to compromise the interests of one of its own government departments at the same time–all because they made the tragic mistake of leasing Smiley Cove to the MRC in the first place?

Vote the scoundrels out of public office!