Northern Mariana Islands

Abstract

Northern Mariana Islands Zaldy Dandan (bio) Former British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan—so the story goes—was once asked to name the greatest difficulty facing a leader. His (supposed) reply was, “Events, dear boy, events” (Will 2002). During the period in review in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), it was just one event after the other. In the summer of 2019, the Marianas Public Land Trust threw the CNMI government a lifeline by approving a $15 million loan. The trust manages the government’s earnings from public land leases. With the tourism-based economy bruised and battered by two typhoons that pummeled the three main islands in September–October 2018, the CNMI government needed the money to pay some of its most pressing obligations: pension and bond payments (mv, 1 July 2019). Two days later, it was reported that for the rest of fiscal year 2019, which would end on 30 September 2019, the government had $30.3 million left. The austerity measures implemented in April and expanded in May included a reduction in work-hour schedule to seventy-two hours from eighty hours per pay period (mv, 3 July 2019). As in most US territories and insular areas, government is the main employer of local residents in the CNMI (mv, 27 April 2020). Tourist arrivals were down 11 percent in June 2019 compared to the same period in the previous year, the Marianas Visitors Authority (mva) said (mv, 18 July 2020). In a board meeting, the tourism agency announced that because the central government wasn’t remitting funds to the mva, it might suspend some of its promotion and marketing programs in Japan, South Korea, and China—the CNMI’s top three tourism markets (mv, 1 Aug 2020). In August, it was reported that July visitor arrivals were down 5 percent compared to the same period in the previous year (mv, 15 Aug 2019). Also in August, disgruntled members of the community—including members of the political opposition and the islands’ delegate to the US Congress, Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan—staged a peaceful assembly to “demand answers and action” from the Republican administration of Governor Ralph Deleon Guerrero Torres. Local Democratic Party chairwoman Nola Hix said it was “time to take action” and that the “people need to find the courage to rise up” (mv, 19 Aug 2019). Saipan’s lone casino operator, Imperial [End Page 166] Pacific International (ipi), paid the remaining $10.5 million of the $15.5 million annual casino license fee on 27 August 2019, providing much needed funds for the CNMI government (mv, 28 Aug 2019). But ipi lost its appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which allowed the public disclosure of the casino investor’s income tax information (mv, 28 Aug 2020). In addition, ipi had to pay a $375,000 fine for late payment of the $15.5 million casino license fee (mv, 5 Sept 2019). For its part, the central government said it was expecting to end the fiscal year with a $19 million shortfall (mv, 6 Sept 2019). As the Public School System (pss) struggled to repair its typhoon-damaged schools and address a budget shortfall, Education Commissioner Glenn Muna announced his resignation for “personal reasons” on 12 September 2019 (mv, 13 Sept 2019). For her part, Board of Education (boe) member MaryLou Ada said the CNMI government should be sued for not remitting funds to the Public School System. “Pay up or we close schools,” she added (mv, 13 Sept 2019). Visitor arrivals were down 16 percent in August, but the administration of Governor Torres was commended by the federally appointed Settlement Fund trustee for “diligently” paying $1 million each week (mv, 23 Sept 2019). In 2009, a retiree, Betty Johnson, sued the CNMI government for its failure to make mandated payments to the Retirement Fund since 2005. In September 2013, the parties agreed to settle the lawsuit, and the federal court approved a $779 million consent judgment in case the CNMI government does not meet its obligations to the Settlement Fund (mv, 24 June 2020). In September 2019, casino operator ipi was sued by a contractor, Pacific Rim Land Development...