CNMI government out of touch with economic reality

U.S. Congresswoman Kimberlyn King-Hinds on Wednesday said the CNMI government does not view the local economy the same way the private sector does.

The government “can’t even agree on what [economic] condition it’s in,” she said in her remarks during the Saipan Chamber of Commerce’s annual economic forum at Kensington Hotel.

"You ask the private sector...and what they'll tell you is simple: they're in survival mode," she said, meaning that private businesses have laid off employees or otherwise have scaled back to avoid shuttering. "Then you talk to the people in government who are supposed to represent those same businesses, those same workers and what do you hear? 'Things are fine, there's no emergency. Tourism will come back — we just have to wait. Heck, we don't even need tourism, new industries are coming. We just have to wait. Actually, we don't even need new industries, because the federal government will cover everything we need to run operations — we just have to wait.' Let me be really clear: only one of those answers is true."

She said the CNMI economy is in a “hole,” citing February 2025 visitor arrivals, which were 31.9% lower than in the same month of 2024, and first-quarter gross revenue collections for the current fiscal year, which were 14% lower than during the same period last year. Moreover, excise taxes and other fees dropped by 44% last year, she said.

“But forget the percentages for a second. Just look around.

“How many longtime members of the Chamber aren’t here today?

“How many managers — people who’ve been in leadership positions for years — are now just trying to find any job?

“How many of your best people have already left?

“We’ve lost legacy businesses. Businesses that helped build this place. And I know some of you sitting in this room — you’re already making quiet plans in case you’re next.

“We’re a small community. We all hear the same rumors. We’re part of the same conversations.

“And I know I’m saying the quiet part out loud right now — but we all know it’s true: there are more closures coming.

“But what have you been told?

“Just wait.

“Things will get better.

“Be patient.”

She said the Commonwealth is struggling because it needs more tourists, and the CNMI government has become "isolated from the economy it serves."

"The government can afford to wait, DFS couldn't. The government can keep the lights on, but the hundreds of workers who just dropped to 30 hours or less a week cannot. The government can take on more debt and pass the bill to some future generation to pay for it, small businesses don't have that option," she said.

King-Hinds said the business sector will try to fill a need, "even if it’s not [their] job," meaning they'll sponsor sports games, participate in town halls and roundtables, or otherwise "go out of their way" to help the CNMI. She said they do this to improve the local economy, but the private sector "cannot shoulder the recovery on its own."

"The work that we’re doing…requires government not just to regulate, but to partner, not to label our businesses as foreign agents or national security risks for trying to survive," she said.

“Look, we’re not dumb. We all see where we are, and we all know what we need to do.

“We have hotels, restaurants, retail, employees, and businesses all in a sector that’s struggling for one reason: there are no tourists.

“And the smart thing — the obvious thing — is to realize that we can walk and chew gum at the same time.

“We can talk about diversification and still fight like hell for tourism.

“We can tell the truth — to ourselves, to our community, to the federal government — about what’s really going on here. Not the version cooked up 8,000 miles away.

“If we’re serious about recovery, then we can’t keep pretending the hole we’re in isn’t real.

“We have to stop waiting.

“We have to start climbing.

“And we have to do it together.”

To that end, she said she has pushed for the reinstatement of Annex IX, the preservation of EVS-TAP, and the fight against cabotage restrictions, while "fending off calls" for federal "operating subsidies that don't come with long-term solutions."

She said there is also a need to “defend the principle of flexible immigration policy for our economy.” Otherwise, “what's next? Visa waivers for tourists from Korea [and] Japan? Is our CW program next? And after all that comes — what's left for our economic future?" she asked. 

King-Hinds said she would use her office’s resource to "promote economic investment in the CNMI." She said she will meet with the Commonwealth Economic Development Authority to "engage in trade discussions," and "raise awareness of the CNMI among U.S. investors."

She said "no one is coming to save us" and that the CNMI must unify to combat the worsening condition of its economy.

"There is only one reality and it's the one that we are living every single day: things are not well, things are going to get worse, and we need to start speaking the truth about what we need and when we need it."