Senators Veto Barrow’s Budget

Senators Godwin Hulse and Paul Perriot, the business and union representatives in the Senate, joined People’s United Party representatives Eamon Courtenay, Corona Villafranco and Lisa Shoman in voting to reject the General Revenue Appropriations (2010/2011) Bill, 2010 at a today’s meeting of the Senate.

All six senators appointed by the ruling UDP and Senator Henry Gordon, who represents the Belize Council of Churches, voted to ensure its passage.

In a debate which featured contributions from all twelve senators and lasted six hours, the dissenting senators were spirited but cogent in making their arguments. Senator Godwin Hulse may have jumped the gun in being the first to speak and concentrating on the Income and Business Tax (Amendment) Bill 2010 whose primary objective is to raise that tax from 1.75 to 6.5% on electricity suppliers.

In a very precise presentation Hulse, who is a member of the board of directors of Belcogen, Belize’s co-generation electricity project lambasted the Government for its utter lack of consultation and said electricity suppliers felt that they were being “unfairly targeted and singled out.”

He predicted that the increased tax will cause Belize Electricity Limited to increase rates.

In rejecting the Budget the National Trade Union Representative Paul Perriot said it was not consistent with reality, and that he did not believe that anyone would be bold enough to suggest there was anything strategic about the Budget.

Not only was it long on rhetoric and short on substance, he opined, but it did not live up to expectations because Belize’s position on the United Nations Human Development Index had declined the past few years from 80^th to 93^rd.

In a surprisingly detailed presentation he not only pointed out the Bill’s shortcomings, but offered some recommendations.

PUP senators Eamon Courtenay and Lisa Shoman were blunt in their condemnation of the Bill, with Courtenay pulling no punches by stating – “having read and studied the budget speech of the Hon. Prime Minister and Minister of Finance we are obliged to declare: that it is a recipe for an economic disaster never before seen in Belize.” Senator Shoman emphasized the absurdity of gutting the Ministry of National Security’s allocation by $6.5 million at a time when violent crime continues to rack the nation, and porous borders.

On Friday in the House Mr. Barrow stated that there is no protest to his budget. Perhaps now he will be forced to get his head out of the sand and acknowledge that his budget is bogus at best. Senator Courtenay summed it up aptly by stating – “we anticipated that he would have offered a economic prescription to cure the sick economy that we have today, but no, alas, we were offered a toxic cocktail of taxes, taxes and more taxes. We are forced to ask: which of the geniuses in the UDP cabinet came up with the idea that you can tax an economy out of recession and back to recovery?

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