The Tribune

THE chief councillor of Hope Town criticised the government after the Abaco community’s budget suffered a large cut in funding.

Jeremy Sweeting said after finally receiving its budget for the year, the council learned that it had been reduced from $554,000 to $254,000.

Issuing a statement to the community, Mr Sweeting said the district is facing “a budgetary crisis of immense proportions”, which he called the biggest obstacle since the inception of local government.

“Yes challenges have confronted us. But we have met those challenges with an unrelenting resolve. In our communities, we have a true community spirit, we don’t wait on the government to solve our problems, we do what we can. We take up the slack, and make things work.”

But this time, Mr Sweeting said, there is no slack to take up.

“The government has given us a broken rope.”

“What the government fails to realize is that, yes, we are hard working communities. Yes, we will make things come together. But don’t expect to cut our budget so drastically and expect us to perform miracles,” he said.

“We can do great things. We can partner with central government and make funds go further, but we cannot turn the water into wine and we cannot feed the five thousand with two loaves of bread and five fish.”

In addition to Hope Town itself, the district covers Man-O-War Cay, Great Guana Cay, Tilloo Cay, Lubber’s Quarters, Scotland Cay and Baker’s Bay.

Mr Sweeting said first reports suggested the budget was going to be cut by 15 per cent or $83,000, leaving a budget of $470,000.

“Well, this may have been acceptable. We could have negotiated with contractors and reached a compromise with this cut. We appreciate the economic challenge that confronts the country,” he said.

Mr Sweeting said that on Monday, without warning, word came that the budget had been cut.

But then, yesterday, we received word that we had been cut by 27 per cent.

“Our budget has been cut by $300,000. I don’t have to tell you, but mathematically, if we had to equally divide the budget for each of the three towns, that is $84,885 to run Hope Town, $84,885 to run Man-O-War Cay, and $84,885 to run Great Guana Cay.

“This is beyond shameful! It is clear to me that the Ministry of Finance and Ministry for Local Government did not take the due diligence and time necessary to adequately study what was needed in our towns and settlements.

“The Minister of Local Government failed, he failed to meet with us. Every Local Government Minister has had the practice to meet with the District Council during the budget exercise, to learn of our needs and to understand why a cut like this would disastrously affect the town.”

Mr Sweeting noted that since the economy took a “nose dive” in 2008, the budget has never been slashed so severely.

“The former government maintained our budget. I understand some cuts may be necessary, but not to this extreme,” he said.

Mr Sweeting said he understands the budget for Green Turtle Cay this year will be $280,000.

“Now, how can Green Turtle, a single district and a single island, have a budget of $280,000, yet the Hope Town district, a district of three islands, has a budget of $254,000?” he asked.

With the $554,000 budget last year, he said, the council was just able to pay its bills – “no room for manoeuvring”.

“If some secretary or office assistant in Nassau thinks on paper without studying our budget, that we can survive on this amount $254,000, they can think again,” he said.