The PLP’s proposed 2010 budget is inept, inadequate, and inane. It is an administrative eructation (see I’m starting to talk like Paula Cox!!)
It does not attempt to restrain Government’s lavish spending, or even make a believable case that better financial controls will be put in.
It continues the trend of reducing the information available to the public, as the numbers and complexity of the budget grow.
Instead the budget seeks to live on debt and on increased taxes on both businesses and workers.
But beyond that, something else stinks.
The budget proposes to raise Government revenues by increasing the foreign exchange tax and the stamp duty payable on estates. Both of these target Bermudians. Neither of them were described in any detail in the budget.
Were they trial balloons? Are they being held in reserve for when Government inevitably starts to blow through the budget? Are the effects so heinous that they hope to wiggle through the Budget Debate without talking about them?
On top of that, the local TV news is reporting that Government has been considering pushing the civil service into work furloughs as a way to save money. Hmm. At last some of the unions are waking up.
Seriously, and just a few weeks ago Dr. Brown was considering asking for a pay increase for MPs? Hmm.
Now I know why Government’s CITV doesn’t broadcast Parliament live. It would show the panic in the PLP parliamentarians’ eyes (and the low quality of the debate).
Do the PLP think we are idiots? That we can’t do math? The man on the street knows when his pocket feels lighter – and the disgust is growing and growing.
The chickens are coming home to roost. Time to clean house. We can’t afford it any more.
Global Voices Online » Bermuda: Stinking Budget // Mar 3, 2010 at 10:25 am
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