The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

CENTRAL and South Abaco MP Edison Key will not support the Free National Movement’s decision to vote against the 2014/2015 budget, he said yesterday.

He said rejecting the budget would send a negative message to his Abaco constituents and the 30,000 civil servants who deserve their salaries.

He was responding to questions from The Tribune a day after FNM leader Dr Hubert Minnis declared that his party will reject the government’s budget.

Mr Key said: “I’ve never voted against a budget. I’ve been in Parliament for maybe 24 budgets. The reason why I won’t vote ‘no’ against this budget is, we have nearly 30,000 civil servants. They have to be paid. At the end of the month they have light bill, they have mortgage, they have children in school. They have all of these things just like everybody else so if I vote against the government on the budget, what am I saying to the people? I don’t want you to get paid?”

Mr Key said given that Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Works Philip Davis indicated during his budget communication that development projects are planned for Abaco in the upcoming year, he would be sending a negative message to the people of that island if he rejected the budget.

“The government wants to do work in my area and yet I would reject the government in the budget?” he asked. “I don’t think there has ever been a perfect budget. But this is a difficult time when the economy is down and so we’re trying to regroup so to speak and get the country rolling. We have a tremendous national debt to contend with and I think all of us as parliamentarians have a responsibility to look out for this country, the Bahamas. This is the only country we have.”

Mr Key said despite his decision to go against the party line, he still supports the FNM.

“I’m still a member unless they fire me,” he said. “I still support the party, but I can’t go along with this not supporting the budget. I’d be turning my back on the Bahamian people because that is the budget, that is something to pay salaries, to support projects. I just can’t vote against the government in that regard.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Perry Christie criticised the FNM’s decision not to support the budget during his speech in the House of Assembly yesterday.

“Never in the history of this country has there been such a fundamental mistake made as in what they are doing, saying they are rejecting it,” he said, as he wrapped up debate on the budget in the House.

As one of the parliamentarians who have also criticized the FNM’s move, Fort Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins told The Tribune the FNM is contradicting itself since “the largest line items being voted on within the budget happen to be the payment of our nation’s debt responsibilities.”

“It is imperative that all political parties represented in the House promote fiscal responsibility,” he said. “But if there is anything that is fiscally irresponsible, it is an opposition that suggests that they do not approve of the government being able to pay its debt.

“By voting no, that is in effect what you are proposing. The Republicans for example, were threatening a default on the US debt, as they referred to it as failing to maintaining the full faith and credit of the United States credit obligations. This opposition time and time again has said that they want fiscal responsibility. I cannot denounce that. As a matter of fact, that is sound principle. What goes against that principle is advocating that this government not pass this budget, which is in large part as far as proportionality goes in terms of how much of the budget it goes towards payment of its debt.

“You are now saying that you don’t see the soundness in approving a budget that would ensure that this government stays on sound fiscal footing. If we don’t pay our debt, then the ramifications are going to be profound.”