As entourage after entourage of politicos make treks all over the world, like Roman Emperors of old, the budget for the local government district incorporating Hope Town, Man-O-War, Great Guana Cay, Tilloo Cay, Lubber's Quarters, Scotland Cay and Baker's Bay has been cut by almost 30% according to press reports.
The Chief Councillor, Mr. Jeremy Sweeting noted the Green Turtle Cay District Council alone has been provided with a budget of $280,000, some $35,000 more than the larger Hope Town District.
Expecting a budget cut of 15%, a 27% slash was very disappointing the chief councillor pointed out.
Apparently his area sent some $5.4 million dollars to the Public Treasury, last year, it's understandable that they would balk at receiving less than 5% back which will not cover their basic needs.
If basic sanitation needs will not be properly met, this could prove disastrous for such a high profile tourist area and second home location.
Spending cuts must happen if the Government is ever to stop deficit spending, but officialdom should be setting the example and they must be rational don't you think?
Getting 5% or less back is a disgrace.
A shame we forget this type of central Government treatment at election time!
Seems to me this is exactly like Taxation of old,
people bringing/sending their chickens , grain and first born to the King/sheriff/feudal lord!
Officialdom has become a Leech on the back of the people.
A leech cares not if it kills the host,
it will just move on to the next one……..
Be interesting if the WTO non discriminatory clauses/principals could be looked into and used to cite the Government for this pillaging of out island revenue for Nassau funding!
To spend more per capita in Nassau than the Family islands is geographical Discrimination!!
🙂
I agree – for Abaco’s contributions to the public treasury we receive very little in return. Geographical Discrimination indeed!
We would welcome a follow up story here. The outcome is quite interesting to say the least.
Robert, I will say this:
When I started reading the documents, (the released or purloined/leaked ones at least)
It took some months to learn the language alone.
Then the realities started appearing.
Principals like “most favored nation” mean the opposite:
Among signatory nations, there can be no favorites, what is available to the best, must be available to the least.
More later.
Non discriminatory clause, meaning you cannot discriminate against signatory nationalities, geographical areas, or treat anyone differently than all are.
So, in the context of Bahamian exemption from real property taxes on first home purchase OR undeveloped land, or out island property/residences,
we cannot levy taxes on foreigners and not Bahamians.
So,
What do you think will be eliminated?
or will they exempt us all, Nassau included?
BTW, I think we missed the deadline on this one,
It would be nice if we knew what was coming though, instead of surprises every budget communication.
The Language, derived from the endless meetings and forums ( where bright ideas spring from) is literally Bureaulinquistic slight of hand.
Did anyone notice the story in the Nassau Guardian today (July 26, 2013 – http://bit.ly/14SLMp7 ) about this?
The council was told the 27% reduction was a typographical error and the reduction was not that high.
They await the confirmation to this effect.
Ahh, backtracking.
Government keeps “pinging” around various revenue outflow streams, and inflow streams looking to Cut and increase but seems to be forced (rightly) to backtrack in most cases.
(Mind, Government has created so many “dependencies” as to be caught between the rock and hard place.)
Like Crime, control is difficult to claw back once out of control via enforcement failure.
So, seeing that the only sector that is afloat is the Private sector, (never studied, and would probably be shown to be slipping) You’re it!
BTW, foreign intersts wanting to purchase Bahamian Land are disputing that they should be paying stamp tax and being assessed for property tax.
A few Realtors have been caught unawares but believe me,
the Foreign buyers are well aware.
I can tell you straight up:
There is no way our few politicians (with half a wit)and meager staff assigned can possibly cope with all the different aspects and ramifications of all of this.
They know very little of the effected fields of human economic endevour.