Shadow Finance Minister Peter Turnquest, in a deliberate removal of the proverbial gloves, said the Christie administration was obviously unprepared for the recovery from Hurricane Matthew. Turnquest further charged that the ideas floated by Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Perry Christie to pay for that recovery -- including a new tax the prime minister dubbed a "hurricane tax" -- confirm that Christie and his administration are "lost, out of ideas, out of time" and "obviously out of step with the Bahamian people and our circumstance".
Turnquest, who was speaking from Grand Bahama, which took a severe beating from the storm, told Guardian Business he was amused by Christie's musings over funding for the hurricane recovery effort.
"It is confirmation once again that he and his government are lost and out of ideas and out of time; certainly they are obviously out of step with the Bahamian people and our circumstance. How else do you explain the floating of his idea for a hurricane relief bond that seemed to fall flat even before serious discussions could be held? Now they are talking about a new hurricane relief tax and even increasing VAT rates to eight percent in order to stave off another downgrade, yet they have the nerve to call the criticisms of the Leader of the Opposition 'idiotic.'
"It is obvious that the PLP government were unprepared for the aftermath of this hurricane just as they were following Joaquin, leaving many residents scrambling and in a panic," he said.
Turnquest said that in the days immediately following Matthew, it was embarrassing to hear stories of relief supplies being turned back or being sent to Haiti instead of coming to Grand Bahama because of the lack of facility or provisions for tax and duty free exemptions without filling out paperwork and goods being consigned to NEMA (the National Emergency Management Agency).
"This should never have happened as the government had experience with the last storm and should have anticipated the issues and facilitated the efficient receipt of immediate relief.
"Now having irritated some donors and having lost God knows how much goodwill, they are talking about adding another tax on the backs of an already devastated population. Where do they think this money is coming from? With a limping economy, which has likely been thrown back into depression with another negative growth year likely as a result of the devastation in Grand Bahama in particular, how does the PLP expect the private sector and consumers to bear this additional tax?
"It is clear that this PLP Government is a tax and spend government, lacking in fresh ideas, fiscal discipline and concern for the average Bahamian family's increase in cost of living brought on by VAT and other taxes implemented in the last four and half years," Turnquest said.
The East Grand Bahama MP and Deputy Leader of the Opposition Free National Movement (FNM) insisted that his party has, over consecutive budget cycles, advised the Christie Administration that their revenue projections have been overly optimistic and their expenditure estimates understated.
"Yet they have failed to listen and... dismissed any help and advice we might be able to render.
"Now we find ourselves in a situation where we have no fiscal headroom as a country to borrow and so a desperate PLP government is seeking to expropriate more from the people it seeks to help through taxes or a lame attempt at a bond offering," he said.
K. Quincy Parker, Guardian Business Editor
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