Vexed Bermoothes

In the runups to recent elections, the PLP was enthusiastic in giving away Government services to shore up their base.

These handouts and freebies contributed mightily to our budget deficits and humongous public debt.  (Simple bad management and a taste for the high life accounted for the rest.)

We just can’t afford it anymore.

But the Premier seems to be consumed by putting out the fire o’ the day with a quickie fix.  The Constant Circus lives on!

There is a time when the Premier/Finance Minister will need to roll back some of the pork and waste.  Or will she try to “buy votes” again in the lead up to the next election?

The problems are growing along with the list of short-term patches.  Sooner or later she … or her successor … is going to be forced to elaborate an actual plan to:

• Repair our troubled economy (ie undo many of their hare-brained, half-assed policies)
• Control public sector spending (ie reduce government to fit our economy)
• Plan to pay down the debt

After all these years, I can’t put my finger on a single economic plan or strategy put forward by the PLP and carried through to a successful conclusion.

The Premier has been central to the team that incubated Bermuda’s critical problems.  As nice a gal as we all think she is, it would be to Bermuda’s immense misfortune if she is allowed to dodge accountability for that.

Premier Cox’s “save the retailers” announcement seems to have backfired.

The payroll tax holiday is a job preserving move.

But the 40% hike in airport duty (combined with a steep reduction in allowances) has people freaked.  Is Government that broke?  What new taxes will come next?

In 2010 Q4 local travellers reported $21 million in overseas purchases.  Ignoring the impact of allowances, that would have yielded $5.25 million in duty … or $7.35 million at the new punitive rate.

It’s clear that the tax hike on individuals is paying for the tax holiday for retailers.

Will the tax hike encourage locals to “buy Bermuda” instead of shopping during their holidays … or will it just raise the cost of living here and annoy the voters?

Is the Government so broke that it needs to restrict Bermudians’ freedom for a mere $4.2 million in additional tax revenue?

If the PLP had not squandered so outrageously over the past decade we might have a surplus to cushion our situation … or be able to borrow.  But in the Post-Platinum Era, our credit is maxed out and Government has little room to manoeuvre.

It’s not the global economy, stupid.  It’s ours and you tanked it.

Unlike the rest of us, the House of Assembly is still on summer vacation.  The legislature is expected to stir sometime in early November for the Throne Speech.

Now, with the rumours of a Christmas election, one wonders why they’d even bother.  After all, the promises of the 2007 Throne Speech were promptly forgotten when Dr. Brown promptly called an election.

Here’s why the House will reconvene:  I suspect that Government needs money through budget supplements and inevitably more debt.

We all know that Bermuda’s economy has vastly contracted.  The open questions are how badly this has affected Government’s tax collections, and how effective Government has been at making its proposed budget cuts.

Maybe they can re-tool that “countdown clock” they had down on Front Street for the Millennium … as a national debt counter. Need a lot more digits though…