Kim Swan: Better Ways Than New Tax

July 9, 2010

UBP Leader Kim.Swan has responded to the Government’s ideas to create additional revenue streams for the Town of St. George’s, ith one of those items discussed was the addition of one penny to the retail cost of gasoline and diesel with the funds raised going to St. George’s.

Mr Swan, who is elected as a St George’s MP, said he feels there are better ways to do help rejuvenate the Town than adding another new tax on people. He went on to refer to what he says is “a series of decisions that have hurt, not helped the Old Town” such as the “Government-ordered closure of the St. George’s golf course, the deliberate reduction in cruise ship visits that tore the bottom out of the local economy; even the cancellation of the Old Town’s New Year’s party.”

Mr Swan’s full statement follows below:

Government appears to be talking out of both sides of its mouth when it comes to its planned takeover of the Corporations.

Over the past year, they have heard the Government say it

  • Would “repeal the Municipalities Act and transition the operations of the Municipalities into the relevant Government Departments.” (June 2009)
  • Wanted to absorb the corporations’ functions into specific government ministries (January 22, 2010)
  • Had no preconceived notions and would wait for a consultant’s report, while denying it intended to close the two corporations (January 22, 2010)
  • Was committed to “the repeal” of the Municipalities Act (February 17, 2010).

Now we hear from Acting Tourism Minister Zane DeSilva that the Government is considering adding a one cent tax on every gasoline purchase to raise revenue for the Town of St. George’s.

The proposal came about during discussions between Mayor Kenneth Bascome and Premier Brown and the Cabinet, Mr. DeSilva said, was “very receptive” to the idea and “very pleased to be working with St. George’s in this way.”

So what’s going on? Is the Government contemplating revenue-raising measures to help the corporation manage the town or is it contemplating the tax to help the town once the corporation is gone? We note how the minister’s statement carefully avoided use of the word corporation.

While the Government seems to be finally taking an interest in the needs of the Old Town, we think there are better ways to do it than adding another new tax on people, as mooted by the Acting Minister.

We believe much can be done to help the corporation do the job it was created to do by redirecting existing revenues to support the Old Town’s budget needs. In the 2007 election, our platform advocated using the fuel tax “to ensure (the town) and its partners have sufficient income to balance their budgets and provide for capital improvements.”

This could have been done any time in the years since, but what we’ve seen instead is a series of decisions that have hurt, not helped the Old Town.

I refer to the Government-ordered closure of the St. George’s golf course, the deliberate reduction in cruise ship visits that tore the bottom out of the local economy; even the cancellation of the Old Town’s New Year’s party.

Government priorities lie elsewhere, as is evidenced by its decision to develop a mega-yacht facility at Dockyard. Or, is the running down of the Old Town part of a larger strategy to fatally weaken the corporation for takeover?

It’s your guess.

St Georges has played a large part of Bermuda’s history, and is generally claimed to be the oldest continuously inhabited English town in the New World. In 2000 the town was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The East End hub has been hard hit by an economic downturn, and in May of this year Government announced they would begin a study about the feasibility of moving some Government operations to St George’s and Southside.

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