A Forecast of Barrow’s Budget

When the Prime Minister shamelessly told the Nation that we were in a recession, long after everyone knew this, he delivered the first blow. When he said that this year would be even tougher he delivered his second blow.  On Monday when he presents his budget to the nation it will be the third blow and this time it will strike at the pockets of Belizeans in a way that will deliver the worst blow of all.

This end of the year “gut check” is a total reverse of what he promised in his 2009/2010 budget, when he claimed that through his stimulus package he would increase “economic activity and spur growth.” 

On Monday the Prime Minister will stand before the nation and start his presentation with a report on the performance of his government for the past fiscal year.  Because this was such a terrible year for Belizeans, he will go to the usual blame game.   He will cut into the PUP, he will take the nation back to the wrongs of the previous administration; use terms like “the shackles of the PUP legacy” and so on.  He will add to this excuse the effects of the world economic recession.   

It will be entertaining; he may even cut into a few PUP leaders, past and present, but when this is all done, he will not be able to account for any measure his government has done to ease the pain and suffering of Belizeans.  And after all the theatrics and the table beating by his dodo birds to his right, he will raise your taxes.

There will be very little detail about the success of his stimulus package and that is because there was no stimulus and the package never arrived. 

What happened to all those projects that should have resulted in what the Prime Minister termed as shining new investments in the physical and social infrastructure that would uplift the nation?  Projects like the repair of Belize City Streets, the Solid Waste Management Project, the completion of the Southern Hwy and the $3 million for the permanent replacement bridge structure at Kendall? 

What happened to the $30 million that was supposed to be invested in municipal streets and drains that was to come on line in the last quarter of his budget?  He said this would help to “end the year in an additional burst of glory.”

As to whether or not he will offer any explanation for why his promised 2.5 percent economic growth never materialized, that one should be interesting.

After that he will turn to the upcoming financial year 2010-2011. Of course he has already prepared the nation for the “big wap,” stating at his last press conference that this year will be even worse than the last one.  He will of course tell you he has found a solution to closing that $60 million dollar gap through the amendments to the banking act which he will pass after he has concluded his budget speech. 

Of course the banking industry is already reeling from this news for they all know that what these amendments really mean is that they will have to carry more government paper and that in the end all we are doing is putting a strain on the nation’s foreign reserves and threatening our dollar against the US dollar.  Simply put, all he will be doing is printing money to finance government’s expenses. 

Nothing in this new budget will restore investor confidence, because what little confidence was left flew the coop when the Prime Minister said that this year would be even worse.  As to help for the productive sector, well with no real stimulus, the productive sector will once again be left to its own survival.

As to those social projects and programmes that are so important to the nation – projects like scholarships, assistance for single mothers, more community projects to keep our streets safe and our children away from the lure of gang and street violence – well, the much needed assistance in these areas will be ineffective.  

At last year’s budget presentation the Prime Minister said that in putting his budget together government did it right, he said, “But we took our time; we analyzed the situation carefully; we consulted and we included.” Since there was not even money to allow for government consultation this year, and since there is no excitement from government over what Belizeans can expect, one can only conclude that the only thing coming in this budget is more taxes and haaada times for the Belizean people.

| | | | | |