THE title should actually be re-visiting mother but what the heck. I refer to the imminent $100 million increase in the existing obscene mother-of-all debt under the latest bond borrowing scheme and, as promised, offer some reasons why it’s a very bad idea. Not that I believe anyone in a position of authority will pay heed.

It’s obvious the governor and Legislature have abandoned all sense of civic responsibility. Perhaps they lack understanding of what they’re doing to us and to future generations in their headlong rush to borrow huge sums to buy votes in the short term. Compounding the problem is an apparent acquiescence on the part of those we look to as watchdogs, to help guard us against unfettered extravagance and unsustainable obligation. I include in that group the Attorney General, the Public Auditor and certain members of the governor’s financial team.

Our senators have traditionally been facilitators and enablers when it comes to borrowing in whatever form or amount. They too are cursed with tunnel vision focused on the next election, consumed by hunger for yet another term and a reserved seat at the public trough. Exceptions are rare. At the moment, Sen. BJ Cruz appears to be a lone voice of reason in this wilderness of unreason, urging caution against yet another round of public debt-busting borrowing.

Interestingly, and in a seeming retreat from his typical stance on borrowing, Sen. Ben Pangelinan on March 27 posted an opinion piece in this paper entitled “For the sake of future generations.” In it we see comments foreign to his normal “borrow and spend” philosophy. He notes, for example, that the governor’s Fiscal Responsibility and Tax Refund Commission has been dormant and uncommunicative to the public.

Don’t these folks just love to create and then ignore commissions? He notes that another bond combined with current spending policy makes it “a foregone conclusion that a tax increase is inevitable.” Whoa!

The good senator may be distancing himself from the bad policy he helped to create when he writes that “should the governor choose” to max out borrowing ability against the debt limit, he has suggestions about where the money should go – and it’s not to tax refunds. He notes this will be the fourth bond issue since 2007 to pay tax refunds and the refund arrears continues to exist, and lays out the debt burden with which our children and grandchildren are already burdened.

Here are some of the reasons why this bond should not happen:

Fact: The elite University of Guam fiscal committee tasked with evaluating the most recent bond proposal found it impossible to locate financial data crucial to an informed evaluation and recommendation.

Fact: The public debt ceiling is now to be computed based on 100 percent of the assessed/appraised value of taxable property, including land with the Chamorro Land Trust Commission (CLTC). The Land Management director has confirmed in response to a Sunshine Act request that no accurate inventory of CLTC land exists. It’s an unknown quantity, as is its value. How, then, can the Attorney General and the Department of Administration director certify the new loan will not breach the debt ceiling? And where is our Public Auditor in all this?

Fact: We know that much of the justification for the proposed new loan relied on a military buildup of roughly twice that now proposed, and the newest proposal hasn’t yet passed congressional muster. Things may still change in a bad direction.

Fact: The Guam economy and GovGuam financial health have been in a continuing steep downward trend for several years. Check the latest Performeter results or better yet, talk with local businessmen.

The solution? I’ve suggested it before, more than once. Rather than borrow more money, raise the GRT by two points and pay off all tax refunds and most other debt obligations within three years. Will they do it? Not a chance. Your descendants will be paying for those tax refunds long after most of those who did the borrowing are dead and gone.