Pay cut to save just $2.5m
(CNS): According to officials in government, the proposed 2% pay-cut for civil servants is only likely to save the government around $2.5 million, a mere fraction of the $81 million deficit which government incurred last year. Further details on the cut were expected Tuesday (15 September) but by 7pm there was still no word. It is currently understood that all public sector workers earning more than CI$3000 will have their wage packets docked from next month until June 2010 and be given four days paid leave in exchange, an issue which Civil Service Association President James Watler (left) says is still in confusion. (Photo courtesy of News 27)
A number of questions remain regarding the imposition of the proposed salary cut and Watler has said he needs more clarity regarding the proposal before it can be taken to members. He said that the first announcement made on Friday was that the leave would be unpaid but that by Saturday the announcement was changed to paid leave, which he said would probably defeat the purpose but it is not entirely clear. He also said he had not been told how it would impact pension contributions or the legal implications with regards the terms and conditions of employment for public sector workers.
“Before we can discuss this with the membership we need some clarity and we have contacted the chief secretary for more information as we are still trying to understand the proposal; it doesn’t seem logical at the moment,” Watler told CNS, adding that there are concerns that the impact on staff for the amount of money generated for government by the move may not be worth it.
It is estimated that around 50% of the civil service will be affected, but there are already concerns that the negative impact on morale and workers’ personal circumstance will outweigh the small gain to government coffers.
“We have said all along that any kind of measures to reduce the government deficit should be in the interests of all concerned,” Watler added. He said that the announcement on Friday came before the proposal had been discussed with the membership and the CICSA was opposed to salary cuts that would harm members and not add significantly the government coffers. He said, however, that the association was not just being resistant and whatever government proposed would be put before the members for approval.
Watler observed that what seems to be happening at the moment is that just moments after discussions on possible proposals, public announcements are being made before anyone even knows the details or understands how they will impact the public sector.
Speaking on Rooster’s morning phone in show, Crosstalk, Ezzard Miller, independent MLA for North Side, said that he thought that as the move would not represent a substantial reduction in government expenditure it would not be ”worth the pain” to civil servants.
He said that government could raise that amount of revenue through an increase in traditional consumption tax. Miller also said that if it came to addressing civil service costs government should be looking at the PMFL and how much implementing that has cost government, and then repealing that law to reduce costs, which he believes has made government departments management heavy.
Category: Headline News
they should be given a choice 10% pay cut or 10% reduction in workforce….
saves the gov $50m straight away. let’s try it for a year… if the island falls apart after 12 months bring them back….
it’s now or never to get tough with the civil service
I’ve been told that it’s hard collecting garbage fees. I was wondering wouldn’t it be easier to agree with the utility companys such as water authority which is government owned and the other water company, even cuc, to tack on the garbage waste fees to the utility bills? If it’s only like $100 a year that about $8 to $9 per month and would ensure every one residing here would be contributing to the clean up of the island. Also save money for the staff needed to process these invoice and fee that are so hard to collect. If you don’t pay utilities they get cut off so its a guarentee to collect. And all the utility company has to do is pass the fees on to government. What do you think? Could this work?
If only:
Yes it would work….but the people who don’t like to pay for services provided by Government would squeal and the politicians would back away from it.
Excellent idea in part. I say in part because (for example, I live in a condo complex, and you would have to sepeate condos, from residential, from multifamily units.
That being said, I can guarantee you the "community service" charge will be in part to pay for garbage fees.
LOGB said the increase in import duties would in part take the place of garbage fees.
Brilliant idea. No cost to Government and 100% collection – Social Services could exempt the needy.
Twyla, you keep going on about this national lottery idea as if it would be a saviour. It wouldn’t be. In fact it would be unlikely to raise even the $2.5m saved by the pay cut. Have you considered that the number of persons who will buy lottery tickets (bearing in mind that it will be competing with the illegal numbers games and big lotteries overseas and assorted raffles here) will be relatively small? Say, 5,000 people purchase a lottery ticket each week for 50 weeks of the year at $5.00 per ticket. This will gross only $1,250,000 per annum out of which must come (a) prize money which must be substantial in order to attract interest in the first place, at least $100,000; and (b) overhead costs (you must pay someone to run the thing, print lottery tickets, bookeeping and audit). You might be able to clear $1m. We haven’t got to the social costs yet. Do the math.
Casinos are not the answer either. People gamble less in a recession. Check out Trump Entertainment Resorts which went bankrupt. http://moneynews.newsmax.com/streettalk/trump_bankrupt/2009/02/17/182378.html
ANONYMOUS , bogieman 18:38, that is my darn business if I want to go on and on about National Lottery. Those persons who dont want to see it happen is because they are the Bankers for it and they will loose money if one is introduced. "You know exactly what the heck I am talking about too"
All una hippocrites who is selling and buying every sunday MORNING, and have the audaucity to preach christianity./teach sunday school That is the reason why some people cannot do a thing but hide behind their name and write anonymous.
Now I am not one of those "hippocrites" of whom you speak, but I agree with all the points made in response to you as to why the lottery is a nonsense idea. Taking the buy-in figures of the post, prize money would need to be about 50% of takings. Add 25% admin costs. Wow, that is $300k a year for the government. What a waste of time. People will still buy foreign lotteries because they will be able to offer life changing prizes because of economies of scale.
Lotteries are regressive taxation – they hurt the poorest and most vulnerable most. Let’s not be lazy with the revenue generating ideas, as it will hurt those who need the community the most.
Twyla, it is not just your business it is all our business. We should examine all ideas and see if they have merit. There is no need for false personal attacks because I am doing just that. Note I did not use a religious justification for my views but explained my objections on a basis that we should all be able to relate to. I am not a hypocrite and most certainly do not gamble in any form.
HOW CAN the flesh communicate with the spirit? Not so easy, not so easy can it? , we both have to be on the same wave length. Further more we had 95% of the people responding on the POLLS agreeing to a National Lottery, I am only one of them persons which you can respond to by name. What a shame you was not able to respond to the other 94%.
You know something that I cannot stand with some people, is that they want the world to believe that the were born with a silver spoon in their mouth with the handle pointing up to heaven.
Those who have not been there and done that, then start breaking windows. How happy some people must be that they have a name to respond to. Good gracious !!!.
I’m not sure how that ramble related to my post.
I don’t know which poll you are referring to that showed 95% of the people in favour a national lottery. In any event, the fact that something is popular doesn’t mean it is a sound idea. Naturally, people like the idea of something which will cost them nothing and solve our economic woes – a free lunch. But that is an illusion. Those people have not done the research or the math.
Since you seem offended by me referring to you by name, I won’t. However, since my comments are not personal they may be taken on board by anyone else who shares your views.
a lottery is not the answer but it’s a start…..
what social cost? what’s the cost to other societies who let let grown adults the right to participate in a lottery
The potential return is not worth the effort.
Although not as serious a problem as with casino gambling, gambling addiction is one social cost. Fathers who will leave bills unpaid and his family hungry to buy lots of lottery tickets in the desparate but elusive hope of winning big. When society has to bear the cost of supporting his family and giving him the required treatment for his addiction, the fact that he is an "adult" might seem less important than exercising prudent judgement about how we raise revenue.
Re what other societies have experienced see http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/ngisc/research/lotteries.html
You have an incorrect assumption. If Cayman had a lottery OPEN TO THE WORLD, where someone could win money TAX FREE, then I can guarantee you that it would be more than 5,000 people a month playing.
LOL!
Oh yes, the world is just waiting to play the huge Cayman Islands National Lottery!!
Be realistic, dude. Even if they have to pay 1/3 of prize money in taxes the prize is going to be huge life-changing sum compared to any prize a Cayman lottery could give.
You have an incorrect assumption that the rest of the world would be interested in a small lottery in Cayman.
"four days paid leave in exchange, an issue which Civil Service Association President James Watler (left) says is still in confusion."
There shouldn’t be any confusion. The days when you’re not working and getting paid…and you’re at home….is paid leave. The days when you’re not working and getting paid….and you’re at work….isn’t paid leave.
Taxing expats won’t work even it is is small. Expats already resent having to contribute to a Cayman pension fund and many low level expats really hate contributing so much money to their health insurance plans as they do. 10 bucks more will be a slap in the face to expats who by in large don’t come here to fleece the country but rather are looking for a decent job in a fun place. Middle earning expats from America, Canada and England already put plenty into the local economy, more so than many Caymanians. 40 bucks a month on top of 150 for health insurance and 5 percent for the pension, just is not going to go over well with the dive industry, hotel industry and the restaurants. In short, don’t bite the hand that feeds you. As has already been stated people must start paying for services. You can’t sustain a relatively developed infrastructure on sin taxes either. It must be a combinationof things and a permanent shift, not some temporary wage cut that will only save a few percentage points on the deficit. Governments need to be very forward thinking and look to the next ten years and ask "How will we pay for everything when Cayman is home to over 100,000 people if we can’t pay for things now?" For starters the CIG just needs to get out of the government run companies, the government should consider meeting on a part time basis or have a shorter legislative season and perks of the job need to be curtailed to a sensible level. But long story short, Cayman’s government is way too big for such a small place. I mean the LA is a glorified city council when you think about it. Being a LA should be a part time job and the salaries should be very minimal. It should be considered a public service to serve in government and not like winning the lottery. The whole thing is screwed though because change doesn’t come easy and McKeeva wants to blame the PPM, and they do deserve the lions share of blame no doubt for overspending like teenagers, but now its the UDPs deal. They wanted it, they own it all now. McKeeva is probably the worst person to decide how to go since he’s been sitting on a government check too long and forgot how money is actually generated in the real world.
To "Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 09/16/2009 – 14:37". Taxes are needed and expats should be taxes. the pension you pay you get back 3 mths after you leave. the health insurance you pay, you get coverage when you are sick or your family member is sick. Win win situation for the expats. I too would love to life like that. So like I said before, when expats leave they take a lot. and Caymanians are left to fend for ourselves with the every yr cost of living increase.
I applaud the Government for trying their best to save civil servants their jobs; however I do believe that eventually they will have to make a very tought decision to eliminate some of these. The truth is, the civil service has grown too big and too expensive, the governement simply cannot afford it and the tax payers can no longer afford it.
Presumably a tax on guns and bullets would take in a large amount of revenue.
We are already paying 100% duties on guns and 40% on ammo and parts.
Sorry to say but pay cuts won’t cut it but not for the reason here everyone is saying. The Civil Serivce is bloated and there need to be buyouts of top paying positions then government layoffs. Redundancy must be cut out and office expenses must be slashed as well. The government must shave costs every where it can including gas for government vehicles, electricity used, post office reductions and yes salary cuts too. I know execs in the states who are taking huge pay cuts (upwards of 50,000) to prevent layoffs and help their companies survive. We hear or see none of that here. No leadership at all on the solutions. McKeeva and the other MLAs make more than American senators do. Expenses must be cut and services too. Trash should be paid for and certain duties must be implemented on select items. This won’t be pretty closing the gap but its starts at the top and in the middle. People must tighten their beltstraps just like people in the private sector are doing.
deduction in salary will put staff back to where they were last year when they got almost the same increase. with cost of living increase last yr to this, staff is making a lot less.
anyways, I am sure staff wouldn’t taking a cut. i for one would take a deduction over unemployment.
all countries need some sort of revenue and that is TAX. I say tax expats (work permit holder). For example – $10 a week times (say 15000 holders) = $150000.00/wk times 12mths = 1.8million. small amount for only 10/wk. higher earning expats pay a % of the annual salary. end of the day, when the expats leave they collect money plus pension. the same pension money that Govt is trying to turn over with investment that (really isnt working, but atleast people get something back when they retire).
The problem with taxing expats is that they are not the ones with kids in public school, getting their bills paid by Social Services or at the GT Hospital, we need something that is fair to everyone.
If you have kids in public school paying a small one time fee would be only fair, sure it might mean not going out for a weekend or not getting your nails done but life is hard for everyone right now, we must find solutions other than "taxing the expats"
expats are already taxed through work permit fees…. good idea …. tax the most educated productive people on th island to protect an inefficent bloated civil service… zzzzzzzzzzz
excuse me?! it’s not the expat paying for the work permit fee!
Excellent point. Last time I checked the law said it is an offence to cause the employee to pay the work permit fee.
I think you have just summed up the problem this island faces perfectly. I assume you work for the civil service which probably explains why you seem to think there are 12 weeks in a year???
This is the most sensible post I’ve read on the subject. These measures must be taken. There is no choice.
1. Send those top tier long term civil servants on early retirement. Chief Officers are making ridiculous amounts of money – and mostly merely from being in their chairs for 20 to 30 years.
2. Charge more for services like trash collection, postage etc.
3. Eliminate departments and offices that are non-essential – e.g. Women’s Affairs office – what does it DO except send out a newsletter and cost money? Empower the right departments to help women at risk instead.
4. Terminate contracts for non-essential expat civil servants. There should be no expat clerical staff in the civil service. Of course we need doctors, nurses, teachers, and other essential experts that we do not have locally – but clerks and secretaries? I don’t think so!
5. Have civil servants pay half for their health insurance like the rest of us do
6. Get rid of some of those government-funded cell phones, blackberries and vehicles
7. Cut salaries over 50K by 10% instead of 2%
8. Hold civil servants accountable. If you don’t perform or do not contribute to the belt tightening – you’re out of a job or take a further pay cut/demotion.
9. And it has to start at the top. A PAY CUT for the Governor and his FCO office staff first. We’ve been paying through the nose for his incompentence.And then a 20% pay cut for all elected officials. They can afford it!!!
BIAS
This article suggests that the saving will be a "mere" $2.5M.
$2.5m is indeed "mere" when compared to the budget deficit of $81m it is supposed to help remedy. That is not bias, that is common sense. It’s just not worth the pain.
I still don’t understand why we couldn’t have a small property tax – say 1%. It’s the fastest and easiest And fairest method of generating a new and substantial revenue stream. The elderly who have few financial resources could be exempted, and the wealthy would pay their fair share. It hasn’t hurt Jersey, why would it hurt Cayman? It didn’t chase away their millionaires, why would it chase away ours?
We’re about the only jurisdiction on the planet that hasn’t got a property tax. The bottom line is that all of the politicians’ real estate buddies will continue to bitch and moan, but they aren’t going to leave the island. It would solve the financial crisis, and generate the real income we seriously need.
Just get on with it.
Tim Ridley’s Recommendation is Marred
I TRULY BELIEVE A PROPERTY TAX, IS THE BEST TAX!
But I do not believe in taxing any Caymanian who has a property on which his/her home is situated on! Residential – home properties for Caymanian, should be exempted.
Tim says, exempting Caymanian homeowners would be bias – BUT THAT IS BULL. SUCH A PROPERTY TAX WOULD BE LOOKING OUT FOR THE CAYMANIAN PEOPLE
Also, give a higher tax rate to people’s living along beaches and adjacent to national trust parks and properties!
THAT’S ALL I GOT TO SAY
On the other hand, we can still work on enlarging our Revenue base and cutting government expenditures
Peace
beause a property tax would kill an already depressed property market and would lead to reduced gov income due to reduced income from stamp duty….you can’t tax yourself out of a recession
THE CIVIL SERVICE association has got to get real. None of us will be paid eventually without some give.
Get smart and step up with a solution to find a real solution or we will see us all on the "dole" line!
What an embarrassment!!! The Financial Secretary needs a stern talking to because his advice and forecasts are piss poor. Then again the communication within Government is awful and Mckeeva seems to be running off at the mouth and not waiting for the details to be worked out because I was told something different at my meeting with my Dept head about pay cuts. Just get it together people it simply cannot be this difficult!!!! We are paying out more than we are taking in lets go over each line item expense and make credible changes and hold these CO’s ACCOUNTABLE. In addition James Watler seems averse to giving up anything so if this keeps up he is going to have to loose bodies–people WILL be laid off and it is just that simple. The difficult decision needs to be made so lets be sensible and stop acting like chickens with our heads cut off and roll up our sleeves and get to frig**** work!!!!!!
It is a 1.5% cut. (9 months at 2%).
It’s a 2% pay cut which Cabinet says will be for 9 months. Our bills do not take 9 months or a year to accrue; they acrrue from month to month.
Well you should not spend all your money as soon as it comes in. it was that backward thinking that got the country into this mess in the first place.
The point I am making is that we are obliged to pay our expenses as they arise which is generally on a monthly basis if not more often. For each of the nine months your salary is in fact 2% less making it more difficult to pay those bills. While it is neat political trick to restate it as an average of 1.5% over 12 months this does not help you to pay your grocery bill when you go to Fosters each week. Capiche? Some people are barely making ends meet as it is and don’t have loads of savings or disposable income.
Ezzard is a one tune yesterday’s man. Repealing the PMFL would save a few dollars (so would repealing lots of other laws) but it would be even less than the $2million or so the proposed pay cut would bring. Both are ineffectual and if they repeal the PFML with its fiscal responsibility clauses, the spending will go over the top. At least we have $70 million in reserves thanks to that law.
What Government needs to do is simple and unpalatable-cut services. Less cops, teachers (bigger classes would do it), firemen, immigration officers, nurses, doctors, garbage collected once a week etc and/or pay a lot more for these reduced services. That’s what other countries have had to do in times of crises.
I know. It’s not good to think about it. But it’s the only way.
Yes but all this posturing makes good political spin!!
It should be remembered that it was due to the incompetence of government that raised the debt in the first place. To make Civil Servants pay for their recklessness is a crime. Cutting peoples salaries should be at the bottom of the list with the exception of MLA’s who should be at the top of it.
I am not a civil servant so I do not have my own interests at heart here, but I do think that the civil service needs to be made more efficient through natural wastage and real hiring freezes. It seems that the day after they make the ‘hiring freeze’ announcements more advertisements appear in the papers for government jobs (some of them highly paid).
1. Govt. debt was not raised by "incompetence". It was raised primarily by capital expenditure on necessary infrastructure (for which the elected Govt. was responsible) and by huge amounts of recurrent expenditure which has been an ongoing problem in the public sector.
2. Govt. Debt is not the primary problem; the operational budget deficit is the problem.
3. I agree with Mr. Miller; salary cuts on civil servants is simply not worth the pain if they generate so little in cost savings. It does not distinguish between performers and non-peformers. Instead, efficiencies need to be introduced. Get rid of dead wood. Take advantage of synergies. Rationalize hiring and firing according to merit, not political connections.
You know when the economy got real bad in Barbados in the early 1990’s, the Government of the day at the insistence of the International Monetary Fund instituted an 8% pay cut across the board. All civil servants were impacted and there was no leave with pay offered. Someone should do some research and see how that impacted lives then and how this action affected the long term economic growth of the island.
While I know it is hard for one to get one’s pay cut, in these difficult times, what sacrifices are we prepared to make today to ensure a better future for us in the long term?
If no paycut, what? Let’s have a brainstorming session of the rank and file civil service and identify 10 actions that can raise no less than 5 million dollars.
Let’s do this, it’s our future and the future of our children at stake here.
Ok
If no paycut… implement a tax
The question is, which one:
gasoline
money transfer
property
income
sales
I think the best we could do, is property, but not have it where it would tax would burden homeowners, burdened by mortage and insurance payments already. Give Caymanian homeowners a low rate – simple!
GOT IT!
This latest idea of mine is brilliant. It will go down in Cayman history as the, Parsons Plan."
All the government has to do is to offer all its employees, except school teachers for reasons I won’t go into now, a deal along these lines:
Take a 1% pay cut and get 1 extra day paid leave a year.
For a 2% cut get 3 extra days.
With a 5% pay cut you get 5 more days paid leave.
If you agree to a 10% cut you will get 8 days of extra paid leave every year.
Here’s the bit that makes it a winner:
None of the deals above will be compulsory. An employee can say, "No thanks, I need the money. We’ll leave things as they are, thank you.
I think I would take the 5% offer.
Now here is the bit that makes it a real winner.
ALL DEALS WILL BECOME PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE.
Something like the following will be published:
"In the Health Department,
Mr J Adams will be taking a 2% cut
Ms M Crawford will take a 1% cut
Mrs K Ebanks is taking a 10% pay cut
Mr T Git will not be having a pay reduction. etc."
(Any resemblance to persons living or dead, is coincidence and I apologise for any embarrassment caused)
I’d go for the 5% cut.
Some people might negotiate personal deals like having a 0.25% pay cut in return for leaving half an hour early every Friday afternoon.
Come on Mckeeva. Be imaginative. It’s a winner!
The 3.2% was a cost of living adjustment. Let’s not even talk about the fact that cost of living has gone up severely over the past few years and while I know of many in the private sector that have been given increases or bonuses to deal with it, I have not. So all of us that aren’t getting increases equivelent to cost of living adjustments are having less and less buying power every year. So I can understand the Government wanting to limit the pay cut to civil servants.
I have been looking at the posts that call for eg. 40% reduction in the civil service. I am assuming that you and others are exaggerating. I mean, think about it, I get your point, but if Government is almost half the size it is now then do you really think we would be receiving the same services we are getting now? And yes we complain about the quality of service, but I travel a little and to be honest i like the level of service in Cayman. Its not the best, but its prett good. So when they are cut, then how will that affect quality of service? I hear talk about privatization, but you know what, if Government is subsidizing the costs, then a private sector company that is trying to make profits, is going to be more exensive. Plus I deal with private sector companies here, if we create more monopolies like CUC then we will definitely regret it in costs.
I also notice that you are speaking of immigration looking out for those let go etc. look I dont want to get into the whole Caymanian vs. expat thing because I am tired of it, but we can only solve our problems if we are honest about them. every time someone takes a position on a topic and someone else offended by itsays that they are anti-this or anti-that. This is Cayman, we have to take steps to protect Caymanians, just as we would expect every other country to do the same for their people.
Immigration is not doing that, otherwise you wouldn’t have so many out of work Caymanians. You may have some horror stories about treatment of expats and I defintitely have some horror stories about treatment of Caymanians. So maybe we should get together and trade war stories so we can come to some common ground. But please stop being offended at us doing the same thing that you would do in your own country. Please stop labelling us as ignorant and zenophobic and all of these other things when we are only seeking the same policies that every other country is seeking, and has the right to seek for the citizens of those countries.
So where does this leave us? We still have a failing Government, as the poster said the Government is broke. Well Sir, that is your opinion and I share it. But to be honest the Government has me all confused becauase while we are broke, we are trying to find a way to convince UK to let us go further in to debt to do things that we really don’t need to be doing. If we are broke why are we having jazz fest this year? I go to jazz fest, I don’t see a large amount of tourists there. What else have they actually done so far?
They said no land tax and no income tax, and there is nothing further being said about the whole unused accounts thing, and don’t know what’s happening with the whole idea for credit union to buy the govt. building, and it seems that taxing the money leaving the country through remittances is not going to be pursued. I hear talk of revenues, but does anyone know the details? I don’t agree with casinos and gambling and I think we will regret doing those because they have high social costs that we will suffer later, but i at least want to hear what the government is going to do about those two proposals. My point is that I agree with you but the Government so far has not actually done anything other than try to cut civil servants pensions and then their salaries. Yes their salaries is high, 50% of the current expenditure, but before we mess with them anymore maybe someone should do some sort of report to see if they really are too many of them.
Anyway I really got sidelined with this i actually wanted to update my myspace page. Good night CNS and thanks for giving all of us the opportunity to have these conversations.
I cannot believe this foolishness that is being proposed by our elected government. It is absolutely clear now why the country is in such mess. How could a 2% salary cut assist the government with their 80 odd million dollar deficit?
It is full time that we get rid of the Financial Secretary and other government officials that do not know how to do mathematics. A better proposal would have been to proposed a sustainable way to generate revenue besides reducing the salary of civil servant’s salary. We are now operating in a new era that requires knowledge and expertise to direct the country further. I understand the implications of imposing taxes but we get away with alot while the government foot the bill.
We as Caymanians need to change our ways and work with developing better ways to steer this country than t be pointing fingers in this party politics game.
It is unfortunate that the government is giving priority to cut civil service salaries before cutting other wasteful expenses. Government should ask each head of the department to go through all expense items individually and eliminate all unnecessary expenses and come up with a 15%-20% reduction in all line item expenditure heads. Government should make it very clear to them that they achieve this reduction and finalise the estimates. Similar objectives should be set to increase revenue items as well.
There are fees that need to be revised urgently. Currently, private doctor’s/surgon’s medical licence fee is $5,000/ annum and it has not been changed for last 10-15 years. However, every month, most of the doctors earn six figure fees from all surgeries. There should be a deduction (fee) from all health insurance settlements in excess of $ 3,000 per event by the respective insurance company and send it to the Treasury. There should be a green tax on businesses that involve in poluting the environment. Need to impose a tax on pets such as dogs; should revise fees on privately owned boats/pleasure crafts; custom warehouse fee is $2.00/day for some years. There should be a high import duty and vehicle inspection fee on luxuary cars. Need to increase permanant residence permit fees by 100%. Environment impact fees on office buildings should be increased by 100%. There is a surplus of these buildings currently. So the list is long and opportunities are endless. You can get more revenue from these than pay cuts on poor civil servants. You should cut salaries from those who earn more than $7,000.
I dont know who is doing the Governments Math, but I can clearly see why we are in so much trouble.
all they need to so is roll back the 3.2% increase every civil servant got last year (tht was retro to the yr b4 i think)…it may not be much, but it sure helps!
How about a 100% pay cut for 40%of the bloated governmental workforce.
If they are as qualified as all that,let them come out to the public sector and compete – I know our immigration department is looking out for them, so if they are worth all that, they will easily fill spots occupied by those pesky ex-pats.
And I am sure they will perform accordingly.
***NOTE- Got to cut down on the web surfing and stop running our little AVON side businesses, but other than that, they can deliver… Trust me. They told me so…
if they cut the politians salaries they would save more money.
Wow sure it’s a saving but thats 2.5 million that won’t be trickling back into the country not sent overseas to support another economy.
Well it is a good start at working at the debt.
If this is true….then this is just petty pandering from he politico’s to the naive voters . Can no one see …..really….please tell me…..can no one see that the CIG is broke.
THE PAY CUT then was not worth it. We need to find other measures for the 81 million. That is a lot of money to find but I think we should attempt other measures of revenue beside opression to civil cervants.
I am sure every one wants the National lottery, but I am wondering if toes would be stepped on if that is allowed. Nothing surprises me in Cayman any more.