Dear Editor,
Article 45.2 of the Constitution of St. Maarten has to be amended to immediately reflect the current makeup of the population of St. Maarten.
In its current state, it reads as follows: “Any increase or reduction in the number of members of the Parliament arising from changes in the number of residents in the country shall only take effect at the next periodical election of the Parliament. The words that should be omitted or taken out are, the words “only” and “periodical”. The article should read: Any increase or reduction in the number of Members of Parliament arising from changes in the number of residents in the country shall take effect at the next election.
It has been confirmed that the population of St. Maarten has exceeded the 60,000 threshold, so in actuality government is functioning with a deficit of 2 Ministers. An argument can be made, stating that it will cost the taxpayers more money. At the same time, however, it can also be said that the taxpayers are being underrepresented.
This brings to the forefront the matter of people/businesses paying their share of taxes. What needs to be seriously addressed also is “The National Ordinance on Tax collection”. It is outdated and has to be amended to deal with the compliance issues, among others, and the taxing of pensioners.
The reason for again mentioning the compliance issue has to do with the WODC report in Dutch “Wetenschapelijk Onderzoek en Documentatiecentrum” that came out sometime in 2007 in which it lamented the fact that although the economy of St. Maarten showed consistent growth over the years, this growth was not reflected in government coffers. So again this matter has to be looked at posthaste.
As to the increase in the Parliament from 15 Members of Parliament to 17, I believe, after the elections on January 9, 2020, serious attention should be paid to this. I would suggest that after the necessary amendments are made, that the Health Ministry be separated from that of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and that Education should be separated from Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs.
One of the reasons for increasing the numbers of the Members of Parliament from 11 members that made up the Island Council (Curaçao and Aruba maintained the numbers, 21 each) to 15 was to create, and I quote, “A good broadly-based and well-equipped system in which the checks and balances can be realized to the full” end of quote.
George Pantophlet
