The announcement by Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) Stuart Johnson that he would propose granting public sector employees a tax-free ‘vacation’ loan in June plus a 13th month salary and the option to get paid bi-weekly (see related story) led to an interesting exchange during Wednesday’s weekly press briefing with Finance Minister Perry Geerlings. The latter called his colleague irresponsible for publicly making such a statement before even discussing it within the cabinet, creating false expectations in the process.
What’s more, there have been budget deficits since 2017 due to the impact of Hurricane Irma, as will again be the case for 2020. This is allowed as an exemption to the Kingdom Law Financial Supervision.
St. Maarten thus requires continued liquidity support from the Netherlands, for which certain conditions set by the Dutch government are yet to be met. These include parliamentarians taking a pay cut like the ministers already did last year, and pension reform by – among other things – raising the pensionable age to 65.
To now suggest granting government personnel a summer advance and extra month’s salary under these circumstances is not only unrealistic but downright foolhardy. In addition, the timing raises questions, with a snap election on January 9.
After all, this idea could have been launched before, but it comes as citizens get ready for an early return to the polls and will no doubt be seen by some as a campaign promise, even if that was not his goal. The argument about increasing people’s spending power to stimulate the economy is correct, but one needs to have the money first and that’s currently simply not the case.
If Johnson’s intention was to seek support from voters, he should remember not to insult their intelligence. The minister needs to do better than that.
