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On the size of the Legislature
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Posted on Feb 23 2005
The debate on the size of the Legislature has sparked a lively discussion on whether it ought to be part-time or downsized to a lean and mean machine.
The primary reason that this matter has emerged once more is based on the obvious fact that the NMI has an expensive bicameral system, a luxury we no longer can afford.
The idea as presented by Rep. Clyde Norita was designed to encourage healthy discussion among citizenry to voice their quiet and often muted voices on a matter that relates directly to their pocketbooks.
But it was wrongly perceived as an attempt to deny equal representation as seen in Senate President Joaquin Adriano’s diatribe. It is a measure realistically aimed at saving the taxpayers from shouldering a system that spends $4.8 million annually only to watch policy matters swing to and fro.
In brief, the system breeds and encourages policy instability from A-Z.
That the local treasury is empty, coupled by the sale of Japanese investments, the downsizing of the apparel industry, sagging tourism, and impending increase in utility cost are more than enough to force taxpayers to begin quizzing what has leadership done to ease the economic hardship that has consistently gone way south.
It is primarily an economic issue that merits, yes, Sen. Adriano, rock solid economic plans in order to map the future of these isles before the economic subduction zone pushes it into the Marianas Trench east of the islands. Have you any economic substitute to cushion the gradual deployment of the apparel industry?
I am sure you would agree (assuming you really deserve the halo of leadership) that a 12-member unicameral legislature is the realistic answer for a bankrupt CNMI government. What good is representation when there’s nothing to appropriate because the NMI has lost all its investment marbles or competitive advantage?
John S. DelRosario, Jr.
Koblerville
