In the CNMI, economic and fiscal sanity may finally be in vogue

Garapan, Saipan'stourist distrc

Live from Saipan By Zaldy Dandan

Saipan —Northern Marianas Gov. David M. Apatang is doing his best. That is like saying someone is trying valiantly as a supertyphoon makes landfall. His efforts will not be enough; he can only do so much. But that is where we are right now, and it is still far better than—to shift metaphors—pushing a door that is clearly marked “pull.”

In fiscal 2025, the CNMI’s only industry, tourism, brought in only about 160,000 visitors—roughly 67 percent fewer than in pre-pandemic 2019. The tourism industry needs at least 500,000 annual visitors just to stay afloat.

Guam’s arrivals, by comparison, are at about 42 to 45 percent of pre-Covid levels, and a significant U.S. military presence there helps prop up its economy.

More than two years ago in the CNMI, the administration decried the islands’ “dependence” on tourism and announced that henceforth we should be dependent instead on the military and Uncle Sam. It repeatedly reminded federal officials of the CNMI’s willingness to “partner” with the U.S. armed forces in pursuing their strategic “pivot” to the Indo-Pacific—and of the commonwealth’s dire need for federal assistance (i.e., a bailout). The administration even hired lobbyists in Washington, D.C., to push the CNMI agenda.

Local business leaders, who dared criticize the administration’s cavalier attitude toward tourism and the broader economy, were all but branded treasonous, corrupt and ignorant in the ways of “geopolitics,” as defined by the administration’s self-appointed foreign-policy experts.

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Anyone publicly bemoaning the worsening local economy was either ignored or ridiculed. Meanwhile, the administration prematurely ended its modest austerity measures, advocated for higher taxes and fees, and told us—à la Fleetwood Mac—to “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow,” envisioning a glorious day when there would be “new,” “self-sustaining” industries immune from the vagaries of the business cycle. This, of course, was not policymaking, but magical thinking.

As both big and small businesses shut down or downsized and local residents left for places where the economy was not in a coma, the administration proclaimed that the CNMI was “getting better because we are making it better.” Apparently, for the administration, all this talk of “gloom and doom” was the real challenge.

What the CNMI faced was not an economic crisis, but a “PR problem” instigated by “pro-Chinese” agitators.

Good grief.

Mercifully, the administration has since changed course. It is now more practical, less dogmatic and less susceptible to the siren calls of fashionable leftism, which is almost always economically illiterate.

“We cannot dismiss the fact that our bread and butter has been primarily tourism,” Gov. Apatang recently said—like Galileo supposedly muttering, “And yet it moves,” after being forced by the Roman Inquisition to recant the then-heretical notion that the Earth orbited the sun).

As a Marianas Variety editorial put it, “Until a new major industry comes in, settles down and thrives, tourism will remain the islands’ ‘bread and butter’—even as others chase economic ponies and rainbows.”

It is also refreshing to hear the administration finally admit that the government cannot continue spending money it does not have.

During last month’s budget meeting with lawmakers who wanted the administration to identify funds for the retirees’ 25 percent benefits—payments the government had been making voluntarily—the finance secretary reminded them of basic arithmetic.

“There are simply no funds available for the retirees’ 25 percent,” she said. Instead, she urged lawmakers to tell their constituents the truth. “It’s time to be honest with the retirees,” she said. At this point, the retirees deserve honesty from the leadership. The truth is, it is very hard to fund the 25 percent when we are already in austerity, with current government employees at 70 hours and the Public School System at 64 hours.”

There it is. Real talk.

The administration is now promoting tourism, pursuing new industries and investments and tapping into whatever federal assistance is available. It has quietly shelved an incoherent either-or policy. It is now more focused on improving the economy than sniping at its critics.

But it must also stop overspending. You know you are overspending when you can no longer pay for everything—or even much of it. And raising taxes and fees in this economy is more likely to result in higher prices, sluggish sales and less, not more, revenue for the government.

What lies before us are painful choices, and governance has hard limits, regardless of intent. But candid talk from elected officials is what allows citizens to understand, endure, and ultimately judge those choices.

Zaldy Dandan is the editor of the CNMI’s oldest—and only remaining—newspaper, Marianas Variety. His fourth book, “If He Isn’t Insane Then He Should Be: Stories & Poems from Saipan,” is available on amazon.com/.

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