An economic consultant who was invited to explain the CNMI\u2019s current economic crisis to the CNMI Board of Education at its meeting last Wednesday had dire words for the board: \u201cNow is the time that we\u2019ve got to brace for, for what could be terrible circumstances that are going to be painful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matthew Deleon Guerrero, Hive Analytics president and chief economist, the board will need to start considering \u201cwhat is the appropriate policy going forward that is able to protect the entirety of the system.\u201d <\/p>\n
Deleon Guerrero, who was invited by the Public School System to enlighten board members and PSS teachers present during last Wednesday\u2019s board meeting about the terrible circumstance the CNMI is currently facing, thinks it is important that all policymakers begin to realize that the current situation is turning into an unprecedented scenario\u2014one that the CNMI has never seen before.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrevious disasters and all previous recessions, previous moments of economic turbulence, there were different pieces that [we were] able to mitigate some of the effects that don\u2019t exist today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere needs to be a full picture about the total economic circumstances\u2026a more total viewpoint based on a severely contracting market,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He warned of dire effects not just on tax revenues but also on consumer debt and the ability to afford essential services like public safety, the hospital and Medicaid payments. <\/p>\n
Deleon Guerrero, who spoke at the meeting to explain the importance of implementing austerity measures in PSS now rather than later, said that everyone needs to make difficult decisions now, no agency is exempted, because the economy is not generating the revenue that it needs. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe economy is built on tourism. The historic tourist numbers have originated from China and Korea, and we\u2019re losing significant, if not all, the numbers. \u2026If you look at the numbers for Korean flights coming in, there\u2019s cancellations upon cancellations and you can only base future projections on what the current information is. We don\u2019t know when the threat and concern about coronavirus is going to dissipate and when it does, that takes some ramping up time and so we\u2019re really at odds with what is funding government services,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Deleon Guerrero said that there\u2019s a lot of ideas being discussed in both private and public sectors, but the priority is to ensure the members of the community are safe and healthy. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe first step in figuring out a way to ensure that people are safe and people are healthy and lives are [not] impacted as much as they could. That\u2019s just what a lot of people are trying to do, the Chamber of Commerce, [Department of] Finance. There\u2019s a lot of people working on this and it\u2019s generating some really good discussions,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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