To add a 10% (or ANY direct ‘income tax’ by name ) additional tax will see IB leave en masse.

Not only that , but imagine the howls of protest from the crowds when they pay 10% on their $54,000 a year while the over $300,000 folks pay 10% too ?

Anyway , it won’t affect me as I lost my job a long time ago and have no taxable income .

The Island is broke. There is no money to pay you all. When that happens in the private sector, people accept pay or hours cuts, keep their heads down, work harder, or learn a new skill to keep themselves useful and relevant and from being laid off. They might grumble, but they accept that these cuts are to keep the company from going under and to prevent ALL employees from losing their job as a result. Our Island is sinking. The civil service is unsustainable. Your options are furlough days or redundancies. Neither is pretty. Neither is nice. I feel for you and your families, but the stark reality is that the money is gone, our debt is unsustainable and those are your options.

You might see your actions as standing up for your rights, but all you are doing is risking the right to a decent future for all Bermudians, yourselves included. International business provides something like 90% of our foreign income and Tourism much of the remainder. These industries fund your salaries and many of the salaries in the private sector. International business wants to locate in stable political environments and tourists want to visit somewhere where they can at least catch a bus! What you are doing could be devastating to both Tourism and International Business. Stop biting off the hand that feeds you and everyone else on our beautiful island and get back to work!

Some landlords will have a generous late fee built in to the rental agreement. MMMMM…How will you pay that & the rent? Not paid by a certain time, then the eviction proceedings start.

Never mentioned why & who is responsible for our debtness either.

Lets not put reality above emotion.

The Unions and PLP in Bermuda didn’t invent it.

If the MP take a 50% pay cut and that saves $1 mil.

Then if the Civil Service takes a 50% pay cut that would save us a whole lot more money. We would be out of debt in no time.

Don’t forget, you still have to work probable 60 hours per week or more, and you have to be available to your bosses (us), 24 hours a day.

Sounds like a plan!!

USA spends $3800 per person in deficit spending last year
Canada spends$150.00 per person ” ” ” ”
UK spends 2600(pounds)per person ” ” ” ”

BDA whopping $5333 per person per year….WAY TO MUCH….why do we need to outspend these other countries for WHAT!!!!

BERMUDA TRULY IS ANOTHER WORLD 700 MILES AT SEA

POP. Gov Debt Debt owed 2013/2014 Over Spending per
per person deficits year per capita
USA 316m $18.1 TR $58,000 $1.2 trillion $3800.00
Can. 35m $35 B $17,500 $5.2 Billion $150.00
UK 64m 1.5 TR 24.000 168 billion 2600.00 (pounds)

BDA 60K 2.0 B $33,000 267 million $5333.33 ouch!!!

these figures all from respective government websites etc.

We are outspending all these major counties per year per head on WHAT I may ask.These countries spend more in other programs and departments that we will never have or need such as defense and benefit programs to say the least. So we are not just in the ball park but way way over the top on spending per person. Wake up Bermuda or the price of a loaf a bread will go for $6 to $20 if this is not corrected very soon. I feel for the workers I really do, I have friends and family there, but kicking the can down the road will just make things a lot, a lot more worse. We cannot spend like this any more. The banks we borrow money from will just say good luck. Sort out your own problems we are gone…See ya…

a situation in which no progress is possible, especially because of disagreement; a deadlock.

Makes me wonder if the Unions really want to solve this problem, or do they just like the use of big words?

June 17, 2005 – $200,000,000 [paid off in June 2010…]

December 04, 2007 – $140,000,000

May 21, 2009 – $45,000,000

May 21, 2009 – $30,000,000

May 21, 2009 – $100,000,000

November 10, 2009 – $80,000,000

November 10, 2009 – $60,000,000

July 13, 2010 – $500,000,000

May 18, 2011 – $200,000,000 [paid off in 2013…]

July 03, 2012 – $475,000,000

Lets just keep borrowing until the IMF takes over.

Instead you want to tax the private sector more, who have been suffering pay cuts and severances for over 6 years, just so the Government staff can keep their jobs and pay?

Why are the government staff protected from the downturn the rest of us all have to experience, while you expect the rest of us to carry a greater burden?

Just as you stated civil servents have sacrificed ALREADY so have those in the private sector except they still are! Now you imagine how those in the private sector feel…some can’t get to work, their children aren’t in school – now they probably have to make arrangments for daycare, there is no trash service and you complaining about one day of furlough while collecting a paycheck.

I suggest that any civil servant that can’t make ends meet to
reduce their living expenses, you don’t need the latest iphone, 4000 cable channel or carry out for lunch or dinner several times a week.

BERMUDA TRUELY IS ANOTHER WORLD 700 MILES AT SEA

“The Minister of Finance then explained that the expenditure targets were not solely his position but a demand of his creditors.”

In other words.. if you want to borrow any more money in the future, you had better sort your budget out!

OBA – yes, there are many people on Front Street protesting but there are a HECK of a lot MORE of us out here who put you in power to deal with nonsense like this. STAND STRONG!! I can assure you, you have the support of a huge % of Bermuda right now who think these actions are absolutely crazy. (And I know for a FACT that some in that crowd also think it is crazy but are being pressured to tow the line and follow along! Truly very sad.) Those people should work in the prvt sector – which has suffered ALL the job losses thus far in BDA – the public sector has not. They’d know what it is like to be put in place very quickly. Don’t show up for work? Are you crazy?!?!? You’d be fired at the drop of a hat. You have jobs. Be thankful. There are many who don’t. And YOUR jobs are safe BECAUSE of Mr. Dunkley and Mr. Richards saving your behinds by using furlough days.

All of this is doing none of us any good. I can only imagine what the people associated with the America’s Cup and the Tall Ships Training Association are thinking now about BDA. Talk about shooting yourselves in the foot – and the ankle and the leg, etc. Back in the very early 1980′s as a youth I said then that the general strike that took place (thanks be to Ottie, Louis, Freddy, etc.) was the beginning of the end for BDA. (Remember the tourists carrying their luggage across the causeway and long-bird bridge to walk into the airport only to come up against protestors picketing at the airport gate?? And those terrible scene were beamed around the world by the international press! Are we about to go there again?? I sure hope not.) BDA tourism has NEVER recovered from that awful situation. Greed gripped the island at that time and has not let go since. Mark my words people. Let this current situation carry on and BDA WILL fail – it will only end in disaster for ALL of us. Do not fix this situation SOON and it will then only be a matter of time. You think things are bad now? HA!! We are ALL struggling financially but this will seem trivial at best. The financial results will be far more dire than what any of us can begin to imagine. Do yourself a really big favour – go back to work!

You DO know about the PS scale, don’t you? Some at the top are making those large sums and that is where the resentment from the public comes in as they imagine that ALL civil servants make that kind of money and are living high on the hog. There are many at the bottom-the clerks for example-who are taking home four or five hundred dollars a week after deductions. Those are the ones who feel that loss of one day’s pay really hard. The managers who make ten or eleven thousand a month aren’t feeling it. If anything, there needs to be a cut on those at a certain PS grade and higher-the fat cats making the most money.

1. Furlough Days was an agreed position by both parties, BTUC and Bda. Government for a period of time.
2. Government nor any other employer has the right to impose furlough days on any worker unless agreed to by the majority.
3. BTUC told government to take off the furlough days which is their given right.
4. Bda. Government needs to do whatever it needs to do without the furlough days which is making people redundant, raise taxes or whatever else they conclude to. That is their given right!

The biggest issue that is taken place is people’s rights. And unfortunately the OBA does not see this. Even if it goes against their initial plan of not letting people go.

The best example i can give to this situation is if Company A decided to give my company (Company ME) a donation for a year (even though Company A ‘s owner is on the board of governors of Company ME). After that year passes I put the same donation in my next years budget. Unfortunately Company A said they cannot provide the donation again so take it out of my budget. I cannot go forth and still include their money within my budget, no matter how much my company needed their funds. I now would have to do whatever I need to do for my company to proceed without those funds. And that would be the end of story!

No both parties are at wrong because government should take out the furlough days. And BTUC is at wrong for shutting down the island for a simple issue that can disputed within the courts. Unfortunately the employment act does side with their argument!

Because clearly that’s his job.

How can the now illegal strikers not see what was only costing them ONE day’s pay has now turned into THREE! WAKE UP PEOPLE AND STOP BEING SHEEP!

I’m sure your bank will be sympathetic when you tell them you can’t make that loan payment this month. They’ve all seen the pictures of you dancing like Gombeys while you ‘stand strong’.

Somebody will keep bringing soup to you and your kids until you get a paycheck. Won’t they?