Over the years, our national debate about national development has suffered some astonishing oversights while missing our greatest obstacle to achieving our potential. Education? No. Independence? No. The banks? No. To solve this riddle, we need to consider committees, clocks and calculators.
Committees and Accountability
From countless boards to committees, and General Orders, we suffer a lack of accountability. How often have you heard, “The ‘Board’ decided x, y or z”? Yet how many matters could managers or permanent secretaries just handle – with accountability? In 2025, faceless boards and committees are taking $29 million from the People.[1] Given our recent count of 12,025 [2], they are costing each of us a lot.
Remember how the Select Committee on GST held days of hearings? Everyone said $22 million could be raised by adjusting dozens of existing taxes – or by delaying or saving just 10% of spending – without cutting a single government job! You know. While so many taxpayers were losing theirs in the pandemic? That Committee ignored the People – and recommended imposing GST.
There was also a Tourism Plan that outsourced accountability to Halcrow International and CHL Consulting Ltd. More input, money, and meetings went into planning development of our most vital industry. [3] Poof!
Some, like the Summer Festival committee, have shining successes, but most languish over time. So could yet another “committee” attempt a national plan – and would People and future governments adopt it? That is, without a clock in one hand and a calculator in the other?
Clocks and Affordability
A clock? Yes, a clock. Look around. Anyone in business or working in one is out of time. How so? Consider time spent in lines to pay fees, levies and duties when clearing goods – or trying to get on the online tax system to prevent penalties. For some businesses, clearing goods can take up to a day a week – and for personal packages, Home Shopping can take so long that people pay people to stand in line. For items like a driver’s license, registration sticker, passport, or a dog’s license, one must pause their business or take off work to pay the government – instead of taking time for their patrons to grow their business – much less, the nation with the time to grow all businesses!
Yes, “affordability” issues are driving longer hours, taking on more jobs, and running more than one business, more than ever, everywhere. CNN reported last week, “worries about the higher cost of living and few job opportunities pushed [US] consumer sentiment down” …to one of the lowest levels … “going back to 1952.”[4]
Global inflation has slowed, but not reversed, leaving most prices higher than ever. Despite relief on goods and eating establishments, GST remains on phone, Internet, current, law, spa and other services. Yet they refused to exempt manufacturers as promised, defiantly demanding GST to pump concrete for construction – or to buy a t-shirt with a custom logo!
Climbing Costs Despite Lower Duties…
And – despite GST relief, US tariffs and higher global fuel and shipping costs can swamp lower duties, while drowning in port fees they raised during the pandemic. Not to mention nearly doubling the cost of government while thousands left Anguilla to feed themselves and their families. And too many others needed second and third jobs to pay their bills – gouged by taxes, like GST, or property tax included in their rent! And government makes doing business costly and cumbersome at every step.
Some may say, “…more tourists and AI” are paying for government. However, even hotel housekeepers and restaurant servers are still subsidising the investors who employ them. How? Allowing GST deductions from accommodation tax.
Notably, AI revenue was given to all the People, not only for government salaries, expenses and projects. You know. Projects never given public consultation, without securing funds for future generations, or using them to repeal taxes forcing so many to work so hard. And – government is planning pay raises!
Costly Refusal to Endorse Renewable Energy
By now, renewable energy should nonetheless have lowered our cost of living, except for the last administration’s refusal to endorse a loan. Endorse. Not guarantee. Not pay. ANGLEC is making up for lost time, but continued fossil fuel use means fuel surcharges keep doubling our bills, plus 13% GST.
Yes, it seems they had a plan for Anguilla to be a vulnerable welfare state. They even pretended the rare “voucher” wasn’t from our own purse! Not to mention oil delivery risks – while dependent on pristine beaches. And they wanted price controls to blame and force businesses to pay for their policies!
… and Apathy?
So. As these challenges combine with GST grinding deeper into our wallets, stealing precious hours to serve government instead of customers and visitors, some have opined that “Anguillians suffer from apathy”! They marvel at our failure to take to the streets and shout nonstop across the Internet and airwaves to demand full GST repeal and more relief. Really? Anyone with a clock can see no one has time to protest. Every waking hour in this island is taken up by paying the government, trying to feed oneself and one’s family – and make payroll and pay tax for anyone running a business.
Calculators and Arithmetic
A calculator can also clarify whether our people and economy are developing. Our last reported census was 2011. After Accommodation and Marketing Levy were paid by tourists, the government took an average of $11,967 of our national wealth from every man, woman and child that year.[5,6] By 2025, if we subtract tourists’ share of GST based on the last Accommodations estimate, government spending has nearly doubled our burden.[1,7] And, given US recession risks, if we can maintain tourism levels the next two years, government will cost an average of $20-27 thousand per person, whether there are 12 or 16 thousand of us left.[2,7,8]
So, isn’t that also paying for infrastructure for the People? Like the airport, government offices, fixing water, a hospital, and paving roads? No! Just government salaries and expenses: Our greatest obstacle to national development is government development!
Government Development is Not National Development!
Every cent of income – not to mention our dreams for financial independence through Constitutionally protected, Anguilla stewardship of the AI Domain – is taken faster than we can start new businesses, educate children, build our houses, buy health insurance or save a dollar to relax after lifelong labour.
National development? How can any committee develop any plan to unleash the brilliant entrepreneurship and unmatched talent of our People? …To ever reach our potential in hospitality, technology, medicine, education, or any other center of excellence – when forced to serve an unsustainable government taking the last minutes of our days, robbing us of our dreams every night, and plundering our last pennies from our palms before we can awaken to a new day?
Repeal GST – and pass a balanced budget bill. Now.
This article reflects issues raised on July 5, 2021, at the House Select Committee on GST Public Hearing. [1] 2025 GoA Budget; [2] https://www.gov.ai/document/2025-09-12-121450_2016207235.pdf; [3]https://www.gov.ai/service/sustainable-tourism-master-plan; [4] https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/10/economy/us-consumer-sentiment; [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Anguilla (2011); [6] 2013 GoA Budget, p. 42; [7] http://statistics.gov.ai/; [8] 2026 MTEFP, p. 75.
