We are entering the Anguilla Summer Festival Season which really gets going with the August Monday J’ouvert Jam literally pouring into the Caribbean’s Best Beach Party at Sandy Ground. The entire August Monday “festive cocktail” can easily be called the St. Maarten-St. Martin invasion because that is exactly what happens. Of course the entire week continues with carnival shows, parades and boat racing — therefore it is also a time when family, relatives, friends decide to visit the Rock.
Needless to say, the real reason for celebration on the first Monday in August often gets overlooked in the festive atmosphere that permeates the entire island during that week. Precious few of us take a pause just to reflect on the emancipation of our people from the cruel scourge of slavery exactly one hundred and eighty (180) years ago. As a Methodist and a proud member of the Ebenezer Methodist Church, that was built in 1830, four years before the Emancipation of Slavery in the Caribbean, I have come to feel a strong sense of pride and history because of that connection.
None of us can really appreciate the physical and psychological torture from which our forebears were liberated. But we should all be thankful that persons from all races, classes and persuasions combined their humanity to make it possible for us to be free today. Like everything else, including the election of the first Black President of the United States, it took more than “just us” to make it happen. Most positive change takes place when people begin to understand the issues and respond from a sense of justice and fairness rather than prejudice and selfishness. The lesson for all of us is that the truth will always set us free especially when it is planted in an environment of mutual respect.
In keeping with this lesson, the Anguilla United Front also believes that success founded on lies is not sustainable. As a consequence we remain determined to be truthful at all times in our presentations. Unfortunately, even when we tell the truth others can distort it. Two statements I made at our meeting in Sandy Hill last week were distorted on talk shows this week. I therefore will take this opportunity to discredit them so that they do not “take legs” during this festive week. Let us take them individually as follows:
Levies
I explained to listeners that when we are elected we will do away with unfair taxes like the Levy and make sure that taxes like the Resort Residence Asset Levy (RRAL) are maintained rather than deferred. My opponents suggested that I would impose a Levy on all hotels. It was my intention in that statement to show where we could find some of the revenue to replace revenue lost when the Interim Stabilization Levy is repealed. This was only one example.
During our tenure as Government in the period 2000 – 2010, in every MoA/MoU granted to a developer, that involved significant reduction in upfront payments like transfer taxes, Alien Landholding Licence fees, customs duty and so on, we put in place a long-term revenue stream called the Resort Residence Asset Levy (RRAL) or the Golf Residence Asset Levy (GRAL). The usual language in all those MoAs read as follows: “In lieu of the exemption, whether in full or in part of the Alien Land Holding Licence (ALHL) fee in relation to the transfer of property as outlined in the Section above, the Government shall establish a system of annual levies on residential interests.”
These RRAL and GRAL were included in MoAs for the Tenemos Golf Course; Barnes Bay Development (now Viceroy); Cap Juluca Properties; Shoal Bay West Properties (Altamer); and Conch Bay Development. These levies were to be collected on the basis of square footage with no consideration for occupancy. In other words, the RRAL/GRAL does not work like an accommodation tax. It works like a property tax and is paid by the owner of the unit. The set language in all of these MoAs also reads: “The levy will be subject to increase every five (5) years by the cost of living increase during the immediately preceding five year (5) year period with a maximum increase ten percent (10%) per 5 year period.”
What I was telling our listening audience was that in one case this Government suspended the RRAL in an MoU for five years, and has not yet put the enabling legislation in place to collect it in other cases where it may be applicable. The RRAL and the GRAL only impact properties that, on the basis of their concessions, have agreed to those terms. These levies DO NOT APPLY to any other properties that have not agreed to these trade-offs. But it is revenue available for collection.
Paper Deficit
Over the years our opponents have complained that their performance, as a Government, has been impeded because they met a deficit or, as they put it, they met the Treasury empty. However, they also boast that they were able to reverse that deficit of seventy (70) million in a matter of months. Of course, these two positions are contradictory because if you met a deficit which was so drastic that you have not been able to perform for over four years — how is it possible that you can erase it in a couple of months?
My statement was that the only kind of deficit that can be erased in a matter of months is a paper deficit and that, in fact, when they ascended to office the deficit was already covered/erased. I understand that one of the pseudo-economists in the party declared that there was a deficit that they had to deal with. He is in fact right because, based on the Report of the Consolidated Fund for 2010, they (the AUM) had a total Budget deficit of over 21 million dollars. That was the AUM deficit not the AUF deficit. Where he is wrong is that he could not have inherited a deficit of 70 million from the past Government because if he did (based on his arguments) he would have had a deficit of over 90 million dollars. The Maths does not add up!
To prove that all of these statements are utter nonsense, here are a few questions that you may ask when confronted with such comments:
• How can you erase a deficit of 70 million dollars when your actual recurrent revenue is $143.9 million and your expenditure is $194.5 million?
• How can you erase a deficit of 70 million dollars when you spent 50 million dollars more than you earned?
• How did you earn the 70 million dollars necessary to erase the deficit you met?
I believe that even in the midst of the festive mood, conversations on political issues will take place. It should not therefore be frowned upon that I see it fit to make these clarifications at this time. There is life after the Summer Festival and there will certainly be politics in that life as we prepare ourselves to make choices that could make a great difference. Making the correct choice can be a factor of ascertaining accurate information and we as a party pledge to be faithful to that principle.
It is also 40 years of the Anguilla Summer Festival. Let us therefore use this milestone year to highlight the struggles of our forebears from under the whip of slavery to the soothing balm of Emancipation. There are many lessons to be learned that may enhance our freedom even now. Have a safe, peaceful and enjoyable Anguilla Summer Festival.
