The administration refuses to admit that it failed to plan for what is now a power crisis. Otherwise, it wouldn\u2019t have suspended the CUC board of directors or hide behind a failed attempt to replace the current executive director with an OIA recommended nominee.<\/p>\n
Today, it plays the juvenile \u201cblame game\u201d as a diversionary tactic to hide its very failure to pay for the $18 million it owed CUC in utility bills. Taxpayers are paying for it, adversely affecting family pocketbooks, health, education and public safety. If you still disagree, whatever happened to planning to avert the deepening power crisis? Wasn\u2019t this issue the very beast that both the administration and CUC board treated with a ten-foot pole in weekly Cabinet meetings? It did everything except \u201cplan for\u201d the eventuality of what is now, again, a power generation crisis.<\/p>\n
Too, can someone explain whatever happened to the $20 million left behind by former executive director Tim Villagomez? Was this money used for power generation repair? Obviously not, given the rolling blackouts and the saddling of taxpayers with another layer of utility bills that was never a part of family obligation. Or was the money used to award contracts to the politically connected? It\u2019s called accountability and someone must explain this to fuel surcharge-ridden taxpayers.<\/p>\n
No matter the political spin on the fuel crisis, this administration had four years to do something about it. It failed to do so! Thus, time is no longer on its side for it allowed events to overwhelm the thoughtful planning process.<\/p>\n
Recently, an ultra-liberal Republican proposed to have the poker industry pay for utility subsidies. This reckless and rapacious attitude speaks volume of local Republicans who subscribe to a famous Reagan admonishment of how government views the economy: \u201cIf it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.\u201d Nice try, lai! And thanks for confirming our fear that \u201cgovernment is not the solution; but the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
You simply ignored those who imposed the fuel surcharge. Definitely, it wasn\u2019t the taxpayers who now pay dearly for it, or the poker industry that had been taxed to death in recent years. Is this too complex a question to understand? And is passing the payment of $18 million to taxpayers a responsible thing to do? Eh, we have our own share of utility bills too, yeah?<\/p>\n
The most egregious aspect of this adolescent attitude on taxes is the deafening message it sends to investors that their investments can easily be annihilated by vicious \u201cpolitical will.\u201d This administration did it to Verizon, apparel industry, Japanese investments, and now the poker industry.<\/p>\n
Now, we must navigate the treacherous waters of a woefully bleak economic future for these islands. Understandably, I\u2019d be on the edge after weighing the adverse effects of my failed agenda mirrored against the crushing hardship my people would have to endure because I wasn\u2019t up to the task to improving the lot of governance.<\/p>\n
Congratulations for \u201cMaking It Happen!\u201d<\/p>\n
John S. DelRosario, Jr.
\nAs Gonno<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The administration refuses to admit that it failed to plan for what is now a power crisis. Otherwise, it wouldn\u2019t have suspended the CUC board of directors or hide behind a failed attempt to replace the current executive director with an OIA recommended nominee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}