The Tribune

By ADRIAN GIBSON

ajbahama@hotmail.com

“We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”

Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill

The goalpost shifting, public relations gaffes, wobbling ways and revisionist spin in the wake of Hurricane Matthew is on full display this week, with Prime Minister Perry Christie jamming his foot into his mouth and launching an avalanche of rebukes when he told The Tribune and ZNS that the Cabinet would consider, when they met yesterday, the introduction and implementation of a special tax to help finance repair and recovery efforts.

Undoubtedly, the backlash must have felt like a nicely plaited, Long Island tamarind switch, soaked in water and collectively put across the governing party’s hide by an angry and dejected populace.

Previously, Mr Christie said the government intended to create a $150 million Hurricane Reconstruction Bond that would assist people, as well as small and medium sized businesses impacted by the hurricane and also to help accelerate reconstruction efforts.

Mr Christie said: “We have to give serious consideration to a more effective way of financing the loss that the country has experienced because we’re also paying now for Hurricane Joaquin and it may well be that we have to give consideration to a selective approach to raising money by taxing some item that would be of minimal impact on people. But it’s a matter we have to look at because it’s an enormous challenge to the country. We’ve been faced with downgrading. This is not an easy situation. We thought the way was clear with Baha Mar. But now we have Hurricane Matthew.

“The options to a government is to initially find the money as quickly as possible even knowing it wouldn’t be enough,” he said.

What’s more, Mr Christie - who draws a handsome salary, does not have to pay for gasoline or vehicle maintenance, has a personal chef, doesn’t have to pay for a gardener or landscaping of any sort, hardly if ever pays for plane tickets when he travels, enjoys a customs allowance/exemption of thousands of dollars - claimed that if such a tax is implemented, it could be imposed in a way that has “minimal impact on people”. How would Mr Christie know what impact such a tax would have on people? He lives an opulent lifestyle and, though he might serve as the MP of a depressed constituency, he is unqualified to claim that the imposition of a new tax would have “minimal impact” on already struggling Bahamians.

Yesterday, The Tribune reported that amid fiery criticisms of the Prime Minister’s suggestion that there could be a special tax to assist the country in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, the Cabinet discussed the feasibility of a sin tax on tobacco and alcohol to accumulate the necessary funding for repair and recovery efforts. The Cabinet purportedly rejected such a tax and is now considering a cruise ship passenger tax.

Let me make it clear: I won’t be paying a penny of any hurricane tax unless, of course, it’s hidden in current taxes. Other than that, they might as well get the handcuffs now. And I mean that! I will not pay another penny in unaccounted for taxes.

Mr Christie, for me and so many other Bahamians, “them’s fightin’ words!” We do not yet have a full accounting for the collection and expenditure of our Value Added Tax. We do not know what the money is being spent on. We see no tangible evidence of the proper usage of our taxes generally. Mr Christie was greasing his own political skids and could only have been a little punch drunk when he made his statement. Yes, most of us have become accustomed to Mr Christie’s make believe professorial disquisitions, but his talk of another tax grated my soul.

The utterance of the Prime Minister leads one to question the common sense of those who govern us. Mr Christie now strikes me as a tightly wound, beleaguered stage manager, unsure of how of answer the questions of reporters and vacillating on his positions, seemingly debating one version of himself with another.

I read his comments with a raised eyebrow.

In the wake of Hurricane Matthew, rather than preparedness and a properly executed hurricane plan, we are watching the Prime Minister, his Cabinet and Bahamas Power and Light/Bahamas Electricity Corporation scrambling around like kids hopped up on sugary treats.

A hurricane tax, or any other tax - with a general election on the horizon - would result in sudden political death for the Progressive Liberal Party.

The Bahamas is bathing in red ink.

What about fiscal reform Mr Prime Minister?

Will we ever see the enactment of Fiscal Responsibility legislation?

We see no transparency by the current administration. They are not even pretending to be transparent.

Our economy is not diversified; we see untold wastage of public funds, we see a lack of accountability and corruption is rife.

Moodys, in its half-yearly credit rating assessment of the Bahamas (2015-2016 fiscal year), expressed concern about the Bahamas’ “persistent rapid debt accumulation”. The international credit rating agency warned that this nation’s “underperforming” economic growth was producing a higher-than-expected debt burden that will “eventually weigh” on its sovereign creditworthiness. According to Moodys, the amount of ‘red ink’ incurred during that period was almost equivalent to the Christie administration’s full-year projection.

Economic growth has proved elusive for the Bahamas in recent years, with Department of Statistics data showing the economy contracted in 2014 and 2015. The current government is, in part, responsible for the fragility of the Bahamian economy.

And so, Mr Christie, rather than trying to kill us with another tax, here are some quick fixes to reducing the deficit and stabilising our economy:

1 Dismiss 60 per cent of the crony consultants hired by your administration

2 Cut the bloated pay of the remaining consultants (40 per cent) by 25 per cent

3 Cut the pay of Cabinet Ministers and yourself by 10 per cent

4 Reduce the size of your Cabinet

5 Ensure that contracts issued by your government go to tender and reduce the contracts to reflect the true worth (in some cases, that means cutting a contract down by 50 per cent)

6 Reduce the size of delegations travelling with yourself and your ministers inside and out of the Bahamas

7 Take back all government-issued credit cards

8 Prohibit all ministers (you included) from travelling first class

9 End the service of expensive alcohol (unless absolutely necessary) at state functions

10 All travelling government personnel (including you) should not stay at expensive hotels

11 Slash customs, entertainment allowance and other perks for government officials

12 Ensure that red plate, government-owned vehicles are parked on weekends and after hours

13 Account for the fuel being meted out at government depots such as Water and Sewerage, BEC, the Ministry of Works. There must be a fuel audit conducted.

14 Postpone all conferences scheduled for the rest of this calendar year

15 Implement a national lottery, which would yield returns for more than a handful of numbers men

16 Urgently shift the way business is done, thereby implementing reforms to remove red tape and improve the ease of doing business. This nation has slipped to 106th in the World Bank’s rankings.

17 Embrace renewable energy

18 Attorney Leandra Esfakis sent me an email yesterday that made me smile. She has agreed for me to reference it. She said that a new tax “should work like this: all the Parliamentarians who did not make a declaration in 2012 should be forced to make a declaration now, for 2012 and 2016. Then apply the Hurricane Tax to the 75 per cent of their assets which are over and above what they declared in 2012. I think that would help.” Mr Christie, take note.

19 Reform and fully privatise loss-making corporations such as Bahamasair and the Water & Sewerage Corporation, which have become multimillion dollar albatrosses around the necks of taxpayers.

I could say so much more. I digress.

Mr Christie, I trust that you would find these austerity measures useful.

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