Let’s qualify that statement. Current account debt.

We also have billions in unfunded pension liabilities and that debt grows more every day.

Premier Burt, please consider reducing pay to non portfolio MP s or delegating sub responsibilities to non portfolio. Either way it makes sense. Perhaps you can delegate non portfolio MP s to projects like ;

A Public Works a affordable housing – assisting w/ Minister DeSilva,
B Tourism lets “step up our game” and look at the Rail Tracks for walks, hiking this is a hidden gem that seems less and less attended to or secured. Our trash situation, let’s delegate a look at a pick up of twice a week, this effects Tourism as well as Public Works. I was on a trip to a Caricom island and the last site I saw was an over full trash bin at the air port – as a tourist do you think I was impressed (I have re visited and they seemed to have “stepped up thier game”
Premier Burt please consider an MP to supervise loan guarantees provided by Government to Hotels
Eg the Southampton Princess project – does the Government have a “Construction representing” reviewing expenditures. This is this ? Revenue there has been a lot of risk transferred to Government with these guarantees

The PLP came to power with us having something in the order of a $150M debt. Under the steady hand of Eugene Cox as FM we more or less travelled on UBP fiscal autopilot.

Then the DrEB regime took over and the wheels came off the bus. Here we are in 2026 with a total $4B, yes that is a B, debt and we have PLP MP Simmons talking about fiscal responsibility.

Hilarious!

Didn’t we recently see something similar from MP Famous? Is this some sort of directive that has come down from on high for the lower level MPs to produce moderate writings.

Public services has an “A”mark – as a Bermudian living in Miami, I know and can commend Bermuda public service departments. I appreciate make a call “speaking to a human” and a resolution to problems or big applied land tax payment, planning questions. The secret sauce to the success to international business and tourism is “service”. I would rather Bermuda be “over staffed” with service vs under staff with poor service – no double.

As far as projects it’s OBA and PLP achievements, I can say that as any policy, projects “succeed” and projects “fail” and sometimes “success” or “failure” is in the eye of debate analysis and time horizon.

Airport.

An expensive an infrastructure project essential to Bermuda Tourism and Off Shore Reinsurance, the ability for more flights is the “driver”.

The problem was the need for “more” beds and the timing of less tourism (ie Covid etc)

Hotels – The PLP Government has secured two very important hotel developments, for “more” beds side of equation. The Elbow (Mr King / Lauren Hotel related “thank you along also for your confidence in Bermuda the Government”) Southampton Princess (Gencom)”, Hamilton Princess (Greene Group, thanks for the support though Covid)

I respectfully request, and the electorate will vote on the PLP Government s achievements based on :

A. Hotel grade A
B Government Public Service grade A
C Off Shore Reinsurance grade A
D Affordable Housing – work in process ( Minister Desilva seems to be “thinking out of the box). Development requires private / government sector help for success. I have proposed a project “Stepping Stone”, that I have detailed in prior posts. I am not for “Government owned” housing (a guilt communist) but am for rent control BHC managed, in exchange for levy and other incentives: similar to that granted, and rightly so, to Hotel Development and others

Respectfully

The obvious problem with that statement is that much of the “vast amounts of tax revenue coming in” goes to paying interest on our nearly $4 billion current account debt and not one penny of CIT has been received by the Government.

Many would be correct to criticise the PLP as being fiscally irresponsible, and our massive public debt is the glaring evidence of that. Along with a string of mismanaged public projects under the PLP’s governance (KEMH, Grand Atlantic, Savvy Entertainment, Sandys 360, just to name a few…).

The most funny statement here by Mr. Simmons is: ["They believe, as so many of us do, that when the OBA speaks of a “bloated civil service,” what they are really saying is that Bermudian jobs are expendable, that community investment is wasteful, and that those struggling should just “get over it.”].

No, Jamahl, the fact is that if the civil service wasn’t bloated, we’d be better equipped to protect Bermudian jobs, invest more in the community, and provide assistance to those in need. The real issue is that the taxpayer is hamstrung by paying exorbitant sums for MP salaries who spend their time writing silly op-eds like this rather than fixing the country.