The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Bahamian governments have borrowed literally billions of dollars in the last few years. This money will be paid back by the poor, at whose expense wealthy individuals and corporations will also continue to live essentially tax free. That is the outrageous reality of Bahamian fiscal governance.

Of course not all Bahamian governments are equal. The two headed by Hubert Alexanders were purposefully regressive - cutting social programmes, reducing Bahamianization protections and generally governing as if the treasury were too poor to afford adequate public spending, but rich enough to afford institutionalized tax giveaways to the wealthy.

In repealing the Immovable Property Act, Ingraham created a new industry that has managed to elude any real benefit to the host community. So miserably does our luxury real estate industry contribute to the treasury that, in one particularly poignant example, Sam Bankman Fried’s $60m Albany penthouse attracts a Real Property Tax equivalent to 0.1% of its value – thanks to a “cap” benefiting only the super-rich.

But it is at Mr. Bankman Fried’s more recent Bahamian accommodation (in Fox Hill) that the underinvestment flowing directly from these foolish tax policies will by now have been embarrassingly displayed to the world. Of course, few reported the rats, roaches and “slop buckets” in our primary “correctional” facility so long as it was only in the fate of ordinary Bahamians to make their acquaintance.

As for income tax, Kwasi Thompson stated as minister a few years ago that his government utterly ruled out this progressive measure – so long, presumably, as there were poor Bahamian consumers to tax instead.

But even the Progressive Liberal Party has allowed a narrative crafted by the opponents of progress to go unchallenged. In a country that spends less on its people as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product than almost any other in the world, yet which ensures that what it does spend (and borrow) comes principally at the expense of its poorest, we continue to hear politicians of both parties talk about “fiscal responsibility” as if it only has a spending side.

In fact, the real irresponsibility in the Bahamian fiscal equation relates overwhelmingly to our failure to tax incomes and wealth, leaving the poor with the disproportionate burden of funding a state that still provides far too little given our wealth as a country.

There is no way to grow or borrow our way out of this ugly regressive nightmare. The only responsible option is to begin collecting the majority of our revenues from taxes on property and income and to reduce or eliminate taxes on consumption.

ANDREW ALLEN

Nassau,

December 28, 2022.