UK seeks $20m more in cuts
(CNS): The Cayman Islands government continues to negotiate with the UK over budget cuts just days before the premier says he will deliver his spending plan to the Legislative Assembly. Sources have confirmed that the UK gave a verbal response on Monday evening to the details submitted regarding the latest proposed revenue measures that would replace the expat tax. However, it is understood that the UK wants more cuts and has asked for a further $20 million reduction on the spending side of the balance sheet. CNS understands that the local government has said it has gone as far as it can with cuts and, given the surplus budget it intends to present, it hopes the UK will ease up.
A memo released Tuesday evening stated that the Legislative Assembly will be reconvened this Friday. If the premier delivers a budget without UK approval, the governor who is currently off island, will not assent to the bill, McKeeva Bush said.
Last week at a public meeting McKeeva Bush said he planned to come to the LA on Monday 20 August, but speaking on Radio Cayman Tuesday, he said he was hopeful the UK would give its approval, allowing him to present the full year’s budget on Friday. Bush has made no mention, however, of the request for further cuts and continued negotiations.
The latest figure that are believed to be on the table show spending plans of more than $580 million as a result of an increase of more than 10% in CINICO costs as well as some $15 million that the UK has instructed CIG to pay down on the past service pension liability. The government faces a growing burden regarding civil service pensions, which has been neglected since the UDP took officein May 2009.
Meanwhile, in order to cover the operational expenses and produce a surplus budget, revenue projections are said to be a whopping $650 million from a combination of new measures and existing fee increases.
If the UK accepts that the latest revenue raising measures are credible and realistic, the budget will produce a surplus of $70 million, which is just $6 million short of the figure the UK economist had indicated would be required to satisfy the overseas territories minister.
The decision now hangs in the balance and it will be down to the economic advisor to recommend whether or not Henry Bellingham, who is currently on vacation, should give the OK for the premier, in his role as minister of finance, to finally deliver the most controversial budget of his political career.
Category: Politics
The UK is seeking $20 million in cuts. CIG comes up with more foolish ideas to make money from doing and selling nothing again. The only thing any investors could want on Cayman is Caymanian owned land. It is the only thing left with any value. O wait. I think CIG still owes money for land it took from Caymanians. Still has to pay off that first before they can sell it. Might be time to bite the bullet Civil service. Or just run the country out of money. Looks like your choice unfortunately.
A letter to all Churches who where receipients from the "Nation Building Fund".
Dear Sirs, you are in receipt of stolen property please return it.
Most civil servants make less than 2500 a month.
The change in healthcare policies will cost an avarage of 400 a month, that is 16%.
A lot of unneeded managers make 8000 and up, and experience the same cut. For them it will be 5%.
Is that fair ? Many employees in the lower income brackets WILL lose there homes.
ALL these people complaining about the civil service, do NOT realize, that the salaries are based on having "free" healthcare and pension.
When I was hired at one of the departments I was told my income would be lower, because I would also have these benefits.
So please let us now stop about complaing about the civil service. They are also people and the information about overpaying is simply incorrect.
Yes there is abuse (gas money, travel etc), but find these people and fire them, but don't let the average civil servant pay for that, simply because that is what the general public wants based on nonsense.
The problem are the politicians. . . . . . .
I agree the fat needs to be cut from the top. But please also remember that there are many private sector Caymanians and Expat workers who also make less than $2500 a month and have been paying health insurance and pension at those same rates without getting the same level of care that the civil service has been provided with (which is rumored to be no deductable and full coverage overseas). This is why the private sector has little sympathy towards civil servants paying their due share.
In the private sector, workers pay their 50% towards a health policy that is within their budget. As one advances and earns more, one can then afford the "Cadillac" health plans. Different types of coverage are available. Welcome to the real world CS.
Sell Cayman Airways and the Turtle Farm to Dart or anybody else.
Dart is far far too astute and business smart to buy either of these unsustainable companies, 9:50.
We would need to pay people to take these badly run businesses away. Your proposal would increase the budget deficit.
No one would be stupid enough to buy something that cost money to run and will never be payed off. Well almost no one.
CINICO should not get one more dollar until the issues raised by the auditor general have been addressed.
"Nation Building" = "Vote Buying"
Why after all that has been exposed are senior public and civil servants earning in excess of 100K PA still getting free gas for personal use? The savings have already been calculated at 1/2 million.
Because the Caymanian people let them?
the UK needs to understand that Bush is a tool of the Fat and happy CS. His one and only job is to keep the gravy flowing. Its the only thing he knows how to do. If they want ANYTHING else done they need to do it themselves. Or keep watching the fat man try not to eat whats already in his mouth.
One hand in the sack, out it comes. I'm sorry sonny, you know I would have liked to help you more, but de last team spent it all on building schools to educate ya, which I na see why anyone need dat when you can get honorary ones. NEXT! Whey ya from sonny? I na really seen ya before. Lord, you Caymanian too? You can vote? Hand goes in the sack, out it comes. Empty. Sorry sonny. And I was just going to tax you 10%.
You could have ended that first sentence after 10 words.
Why not 50M? Lol
Macs big claim is he will not cut jobs at the CS- of course not, it would be political suicide and cause more unemployment to Caymanians.
Not sure how the numbers would sort out on this idea but I will throw it out there:
All top civil servants (Managers, Managing Directors etc), say the top 5 in every Statutory Authority and Government Office, including MLA's are forced to take a 15% salary cut.
This way it is not politically unpopular because it represents a small number of voters and no lower paying civil servants have to lose jobs and suffer further hardship. In addition, the top managers are unlikely to leave due to their 15% pay cut (where could they go to make the same kind of dough?) , and they are likely able to afford it and it will cause little hardship.
So in summary:
1)Mac wins becausehe achieves the goal and doesn't alienate a large voting block
2) The everday working Caymanian is spared job losses which is good for the country and no loss of current income either
3) Government achieves overall goal of reducing CS expenses by harming the fewest people.
Thumbs up if you like this solution 🙂
Damn and swanky were getting ready for a world tour. They may just be playing back in the kitchen again.
Hope the FCO squeezes bush until his pips squeak !
We do not need hurricane Hilton. We do not need the new PWD compound in the Brac either. We do not need the 3 district post offices in the Brac. That’s 10 million of the 20 that needs to be cut
3 District Post Offices in the Brac? WTF. These MLA's must be smoking the sh*t that washes up on our beaches.
1 – cut nation building slush fund. its a vote buying scheme.
2 – collect receivables, ibcluding ritz $6m, HSA debts
3 – cut stipends and housing allowances etc to boards, commitees etc
4 – mandatory economy flight and hotel for official travel
5 – slash official travel – havent you people heard of video conference, conference calls in this day and age? Christ. And no friggin entourages!
6 – MLAs take a pay cut
7 – cut training budget
8 – no more non-essential pojects
9 – cut the butler, cook, bodyguard/boyfriend/ PA and protocol perks aka unnecssary freeness. No one is trying to get Juliana. We can hope her conscience will and she can repay the public money she wrongfully took to pave Brac parking lots to buy votes.
10- Churches, please do the right thing and RETURN the nation building money you took. The country is in a crisis. Start a "building fund" and collect offering from your parishioners. Have a raffle (shhh, no no its not gambling).
I love all your ideas especially #10. Now that would be nation building in the true sense of the word. I'm not holding my breath though…
Go get the 6 million dollars from Michael Ryan NOW!
Bodyguard/Boyfriend?
Is that a remake of the original movie The Boduguard?
or the Cayman version of Love Story?
I did an FOI request a year ago, and Cayman airways responded that there were over 1000 people that fly free of charge. there were so many past directors and their families still flying for free that they (CAL) could not even quantify the precise number!!!!!
If that is not gross waste, please tell me what is. If the Government cant cut the freebees how can they be expected to cut anything else.
UK..Please don't ease up on your demands for our banana republic buffoons to engage in fiscal responsibility.
The developer of Ritz Carlton owe the government $6 million begin by collecting that instead of chasing Caymanians from Safehaven. Cayman need to start collecting monies owned to the government by wealthy individual or start court proceedings.
Government need to go get the 6 million dollars from the devloper who still owes them on the land deal and refueses to pay them. It is amazing how easy it is for some people to walk away owing government millions of dollars and nothing is done thru the courts to force them to pay while they try to evict people from lands that belong to them. I am really sick of what is going on in this island. I just read an article call Funny Business: Putting on the the Ritz all Caymanians should google it and read. This island is in a sad state of affairs indeeed.
No cuts to civil service or reduced spending, then hello to income, property or VAT. Well Mr. Bellingcamp I don't want to but I'll take the 10% government enhancement fee. Oh no I'm not expat so that does not apply. Oh not property how about VAT, no that either as taxes are bad. I will have to settle for decuction/reduced spending by government.
If Ezzard and Gilbert had instituted a single payer health insurance program, covering all Caymanians, residents and a small daily fee for all tourists, everybody would be covered fully and effectively, for a fraction of the cost.
Much easier said (or blogged about!) than done Slowpoke.
Actually, I was part of a small group advising them that this health insurance plan would result in a number of uninsured/underinsured individuals and effectively be very expensive for both the private and public sector.
At the risk of sounding like a " sore loser", I told you so! The only failed health care plan in western countries is the US one, and we thought it we could make it work here?
CINICO THE AMAZING HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY
The establishment of CINICO was a brilliant idea by Gilbert McLean, the mistake is that the correct Health Insurance Laws were not established, therefore it was doomed from the beginning.also coupled with that the person in charge had no idea about running a health insurance company.
Finally the CEO resigned and the Company was left for years with no CEO however the General Manager took over and the company moved forward and made a profit for the next two years.Then comes a change of Government and a new Board.
The General Manager who was running the company and was well versed in health insurance management, and company making money – oh well that was not good enough, she was locked out of her office and so goes CINICO.
New CEO is put in charge (and one in my opinion who knows nothing about managing a health insurance company)and you know the rest of the story..
Now CINICO is asking for 10% increase in funds to run the company, well no surprise in that request. Good Luck CINICO – THe company is in good hands and the people are asked once again to cough up money to be wasted again. What we the people would like to know is just how much CINICO went in the hole last year ending June 3oth 2012.
Yours truly
A CONCERNED CAYMANIAN
The elephant in the Caymanian room is corruption or (aka) cronyism.
Cronyism: definition = put your cousin (who has no expretise or qualifications) in place instead of a competent professional (Caymanian or expat).
My friend where were you 30 years when this Elephant came into the room?
It wasn't an elephant then – more like a chihuahua.
"the General Manager…………was well versed in health insurance management….". Hmm, would that be the lady who was in charge of CINICO during the period so ruthlessly criticised for deficiencies in the way it did business by a recent audit report, 18:39?
Michael Ryan needs to pay government the 6 million dollars owed to them.
If the National Building Fund — i.e., the "Bush vote buying slush fund" — is not cut, the UDP government and Bush in particular will have lost their last ounce of credibility.
"…last ounce of credibility."
Hmmm, I thought they were down to their last 0.000000001 milligrams a long time ago.
I wish the British just come and fix this mess. I am not pro British but I love my country enough to hate MB destroying it.
They are having problems fixing their own mess.
I have a question WHO pays for Juliana and her bodyguard tickets to and from the Brac?
I have a question to your question! Why does Juilanna need a bodyguard?
VIPbaby, VIP 🙂
To protect her form all dem solja's over there in the Brac.
Repeat after me…. "Community Enhancement Fee". 🙂
Take away my Christmas bonus, it's only fair that I get no bonus if I didn't work.
Take away my seaman's pay, everyobody knows I didn't go to the Mosquito Cays and get seasick in the North Sound.
Take away my veteran's benefits; I was only slightly injured in the war on drugs.
Take away the shiny medals you gave me on Heroe's Day.
But please, please, please, don't take away my solar panels. I already spent the money somebody paid me for them, and he is going to kill me if I don't deliver them to him by Christmas.
Who gets a Christmas bonus???
Get rid of the Hurricane Hilton and the Nation Building fund! Problem solved!
Cut Nation building fund
Cut Solar fund
wow that was easy
You forgot cut Mac… he prolly costs us more than the items you've listed!
Excellent…add to those the Christian Heritage monument, payments to our olympic athletes with wealthy parents,massive payments to Hosing trust board members, and of course the national fund for ministers' first class travel with entourage vacations.
Who did you pay for 'hosing' them….?:)
Clean hands…..thats all i got to say.
I have the answer, actuall my first grade son has the answer.
Get rid of your SOLAR PANEL project. Simple and done!
The solar panel project is smart, it may need some tweaking, but cutting that would be about as dumb as if in the past when automobiles first came on the stage in history, we decided in the past that horse and buggies would still be a realistic alternative for the year 2012. But I guess a 1st grader has more historical insight in determining future technological demands.
You are somewhat correct in saying that "installing solar panes is smart", however what is not "smart" is the process that is being proposed. The taxpayer should not be footing the bill to enhance the properties of a select few (WB) voters, who in all probability will not be able to afford or be interested in servicing/maintaining the units, so Govt.will then be throwing good money after bad when the tax payer has to provide the necessary back-up (PWD).
..then maybe more than a little tweaking, but dont sell out that idea because of a few present day government shiesters that will be out of office in the near future.
You have to understand that the UDP won't get re-elected if THAT happens.
CINICO gets a budget INCREASE??? CINICO??? Are you f-ing kidding me??? How can that man say they have made all possible spending cuts with a straight face?
CINICO? It should be named CYNICAL.
Incompetence defined.
TCI here we come.
In the UK when a local authority (town, city or county council) can't balance the books or defaults it goes into administration, the elected representatives are effectively suspended and control of the finances is taken over by central government.
The Cayman Islands is going down this road very rapidly. I bet the number crunchers at the FCO already have a nice little package of cuts and reforms lined up ready to enforce when this all goes belly up.
The harsh reality is that the no attempt has been made to put the brakes on the public sector's, "spend, spend, spend," attitude.
It's no good trying to point the finger at the current leadership for all the problems because much of it is the responsibility of certain sections of the civil service, who have refused to accept the fact that they need to tighten their belts and have been frantically trying to do deals (or hold out long enough to let the main players take their retirement) to save themselves.
You want to save CI$20million or even more? Start off by shutting down the Department of Tourism, even their title is a contradiction in terms because they do nothing productive to promote tourism in the Islands.
Next, get rid of those expensive old Boeing 737s and run Cayman Airways' international operations on a simple code-sharing basis. Many of the routes are already served by other carriers, those that aren't are probably not worth flying anyway or can be handed over to other operators.
And the list goes on. The scope for cuts is there but there's no willingness to do it. Current UK government logic would suggest that releasing public sector workers into the private sector is a good move. Whether that would work out here is another question.
Why not tax the churches? I hear one in West Bay had unearned income in excess of $2 million last year.
Hell yeah, a 100 percent tax on that would easily earn us two million.
Mr Premier, you should never have taken the 10% off. I know this would happen. Cant you see what the UK is doing, they seem to want to leave us naked and barefoot. Put the 10% back on.
You know, a very small part of me wants this 10% put on just so you ignorant folk can see how blatantly ridiculous it is and how detrimental it will be for our island. Then you will be walking around with your tails between your legs trying to find someone else to blame the country's financial situation on…. problem is, there won't be anyone to lend an ear.
"our island"?
Your future debt.
Cut Cut Cut.
1. Staff of the Dept of Children and Family Services, who sit in A/C all day, and never do district visits. The clients have to go to them.
2. Cut the $60 million CFS funding and there will be less people buying drugs and depending on government to pay rent for them and their children machines.
3. Delete the Nation Building out completely.
4. Reduce Official Travel – and check the personal expenditure on the Corporate Cards.
OK, let me spell this out to you…the FCO is not looking for revenue measures (they would not have allowed the expat tax anyway based on discrimation and its inherent unfairness) they want CUTS! CUTS! CUTS! But all the government can do is SPEND! SPEND! SPEND!
13:43
So why are they not cutting their expenditures? instead they themselves have been borrowing since they got into power.
Today, they plan to borrow 11.8 billion pounds, to keep their country running…you guys cant see the forest for the trees. In layman, you hate this government so much you welcome the UK to destroy Cayman ….you are so discusting!
LMAO.
The UK would NEVER have approved the "Community Enhancemet Fee," aka the "Expat Tax."
Pull your head out.
you funny. I will give you 10% of my wages to see you naked AND barefoot.
If you was to see me naked and barefoot, I gurantee that you would want to pay 50% of your pay check Plus leave your wife or husband too.
*yawns*
Put your clothes Back on please, and PAY YOUR OWN TAXES
Bravo! $20m of cuts!
Forced sanity is good sanity.
A 10% increase in CINICO costs? It's time for the civil servants to start paying for some of their own benefits/services. Cayman's civil servants should not be immune from what is happening all over the world.
Take 10 percent off of all Goverment employees salaries
and get rid of 50 percent of the free loaders collecting money from the Goverment social services, budget balanced!
Please provide us with your list of "free loaders".
Well I know of three co-workers who earn over CI 40K a year who are always taking time off to go get their visits with their social workers, who are getting special scholarships through government, who got special funding for their housing and who are breeding like rabbits and get money to help support their kids by various fathers from an agency when I asked one why she keeps having more kids she said it was because she gets more money. I’m Caymanian and have more skills than them but we are all on the same wage from the employer and I am not getting any of those services…oh that’s right it’s because I am an older Caymanian who struggled and worked extra jobs to pay for my two kids to go to school and when it was time for them to go to college made them get part time jobs to help pay their way through and I don’t buy things on credit I save until I can afford it and I don’t live in a big sprawling house just a simple 3 bed 2 bath that I get off of my butt and maintain myself and I dont drive a brand new gas guzzling car and I don’t have the latest electronic gadgets I would be ashamed if I went and asked for handouts from all these agencies. I live simply and within my means and I am not really interested if the person next door has more things than me but I am interested that I have to work so hard to help keep my country afloat so others can enjoy their false sense of entitlement….clean house cut government to what we are a small city and operate that way with everything centralized and tell me again why bodyguards and chefs and the whole other extra staff are needed for our so called leaders????
I would put several of the MLAs at the top of the list.
First of all send all expat foreigners back to their country of origin that should save the country $55,000 thousand per year for each prisioner. Cut the civil service of all non professional expat workers. Cut back on some national bulding projects and hand outs. Make non Caymanian spouse of seamen and pensioners pay half of their health insurance and lessen the pension that they receive by half when one spouse dies. This alone should save the government over $20 million.
And insure nothing at all gets done. Better to cut all those who do nothing anyway. BOOM!! instand savings of $20 million. Same amount of work accomplished.
The government has not "gone as far as it can". Please explain to us why all civil servants still do not have to pay their pension contributions – just like everyone else. And why do they not all have to pay for their health insurance – just like everyone else.
Why don' t the civil service pay for pension and health care..Einstein here is the simple low down to it….
CS are forced to take CINICO therefore they don't pay….they have agreed to pay 1/2 if they are allowed to select private insurance (like you) and go to any doctor they wish (like you)…the problem is that the Government owns a hospital and this would cause the hospital to go way into the RED!
Now, if every member of the private sector was to use the CIG hopsital and no other provider was on island I would see you brimming face in their and theplan would work fine.
But, it is only when you are in a critical situation that you need to have access to the sophiscated equipment e.g. ventilation machines that you would attend the Government hospital.
So the CS are actually providing a service again to you by having to use a facility in order to keep it viable so should you need to be on life support it is there.
Now, the only other option I see is that the whole private health care industry is abandoned and CINICO cards for all or the Government abandons healthcare and let private industry fight for it (Bad idea) look at the USA.
So it is either the Status Quo, CINICO cards for all or CINICO for none. I didn't agree when they wanted to push the 10% expat tax down others throats but it is ok to push a tax down our throat to maintain service that everyone may need.
Perhaps the Politicans should cause us to contribute to CINICO lilke everyone else but in return they should slap a heavy tax on using private medical facilities and call it a emergency medical care enhancement fee
This rather muddled post actually has truth and common sense buried in it!
So, Mr Whittaker, did the Miller-Shaw report get it wrong? If it did, that is serious because its leading support advisor here in Cayman was the Financial Secretary, Mr Ken Jefferson, and our Finance Portfolio.
No. Its just that he and others cannot see the wood for the trees and simply do not understand what we, and the Miller Shaw report are saying.
Kind of sad isn't it? And worrying, given that at least some civil servants apparently don't understand the structure of their remuneration.
Get your facts straight, it is 6% and 6% (total 12%) and when you see a Govt. salary quoted it does not include the pension, the 6% employee contribution is added to your pay slip every month and then deducted. Don't try and say that it is taken account in low base salaries because that is simply not true. Do a comparison between the public and private sectors and you will see the CS are paid somewhat more than the private sector.
Bet Mac wish he didn't spend all that Money on 'Panama Night', having a delegation go with him to China and sending Juju over to the Pacific. HA
Ha….you honestly think he cares what of our money he spends?
Makes me proud to be British.
To those supporters of the Honourable Premier McKeeva Bush, the current issue surrounds cuts in spending as opposed to an increase in revenue. The FCO are satisfied with the money coming in but are unsatisfied with the amount of money being spent.
Asking the current regime to stop spending so much on so little is like asking a dog to stop barking. Words will not work on either one. Bust out the stick or get out of the way.
Not sustainable and no meaninig full cuts! Regected.
(1) Cut Nation Building slush fund….there are enough scholarships and enough on social welfare already!
(2) MLAs lead by example and take 20% pay cut
(3) Cut non essential projects
(4) collect $6m from Ritz and any other reciveables
SIMPLE!
The Premier should cut the Nation Building Fund. Period.!! He should also cease the rhetoric about giving the Church (his Church) money to build a hurricane shelter; he has been an elected representative for the past 25 years or so, therefore the fact that West Bay does not have a Hurricane Shelter is his own fault. The other Churches have members who should be giving offerings and tithes, the onus is on them to provide church buildings and other facilities that they might need. I can understanding government assisting with contributions to the programmes they run to assist the elderly , children and youths if necessary, but taking it upon himself to dole out funds to the churches, nilly willey is reckless. I pay my tithes to my church and as a member I feel it is my responsibility to assist my church. Also I feel that he should not be doling out funds for scholarships. The Minister and his office has their methods of granting scholarships, based on the students being able to gain entrance into universities here and abroad. I realise that there are some who has the desire to further their education and will not get accepted into a university ,but there is ICCI as well as UCCI. Last year I watched a graduation on TV where adults were graduating at UCCI with diplomas in electrical, plumbing and construction.I am not sure whether it was a programme ran by UCCI or whether they were coming out of an apprentice programme supervised by UCCI. It seems to be thatthere are enough avenues where a person can further their education/ trade available, without the Premier having control of millions of dollars (our dollars) to dole out to whom he wishes to, and probably without any kind of assessments or supervision as to whether it is money well spent. Having had children passed through private schools and public schools there is no doubt in my mind that any student who really wants to get an education/or trade can do it with government paying the funds directly to the institutions.
Who owns all of these churches anyway? God?
Yes, and after all these milleniums he still can't handle money!
George Carlin lives! 🙂
Also, why would you need to reinforce a church building to withstand damage from an "Act of God"?
I like the sound of the Church of God, because it seems to be good to go to the church that is god's church, but now I have seen the Church of God (Universal). This sounds to me like this other church has more god and more god must make it better.
Mac does. They're completely bought and paid for.
No, I will NOT cut my salary or stop double dipping or curtail my global travelling hijinx. Absolutely NOT. I will only do what is good for my country.
You are fat and funny forever!
Please Mr. Bellingham. Please..
If we dont get our nation building funds then how do you expect us to win the election?
Please. Please. Pretty Please…
Can we instead add some more taxes on the donkey faced people?
I am so pleased the UK is demanding this. I'm only sorry they aren't asking for more than $20m. I'd have been happier if it was $100m.
$20m can easily be found by cutting the solar panel project, axing the "nation building" slush fund, sacking the CS workers that haven't showed up for work for a year or more, cancelling the gasboy cards that are being used to fill jet skis and private cars (ie most of them), cutting the CINICO budget instead of increasing it, and slapping a few hands away from the cookie jars.
$100m would have meant audited accounts and keeping track of public money, a hiring freeze at the CS to stop the cronyism, maybe trying to recover some of the misappropriated money from recent years (Gasboy and Brac paving at least but there must be many more examples), a crackdown on using the turtle farm as a slush fund, and other important and necessary changes.
Killl the nation Buildig fund ad we are half way there.
the nation building fund includes educational scholarships.. cut it, and you'll have a bunch of undereducated locals for decades to come, who sit by complaining while foreigners continue to milk this place.
CINICO is public denounced as being mismanaged and putting public money at risk of misappropriation. The country is broke and (apparently) desperately in search of any areas where it can cut back on spending, Yet CINICO is allocated more money without any changes to management or reassurances to the public that the issueshave been resolved??? Are you kidding me?? Are we finally at rock bottom? That's like increasing the budget to pay for government gas cards.
It is totally indefensible to increase the CINICO budget after the auditor general's recent report of gross mismanagement and spending practices that "puts public money at risk" which is about as close as a public official gets to saying it's being misappropriated.
What has been done to address those concerns? Have ANY savings been found after the AGs report or did Bush just allocate more money to fall through the cracks?
This makes me more angry than the expat tax.
I know this may not sit right with some of the "christians" out there. But a quick solution to the fincial issue the government is facing it to introduce a national lottery. We all know there's a multi million dollar "illegal" nuber selling ring at ever corner of this Island. Why not have a national lottery where government keeps a percentage of the money taken in and put the remainder up for the public to win. Those of you who are against gambling ("christians") the bible says no sin is greater than the next. I dont know about you but I have yet to see any religious group here on island protest to the consumption of alcohol. But we all know why, its a Caymanian past time. lol. To make a long story short if we can consume alcohol on this island we should be able to gamble because its just as wrong but right for Cayman's Finacial problem. Maybe I should run for office to clear up this mess LOL
A national lottery is not our saviour. It would probably net less than $5m. It is a tax on the poor, desparate and mathematically challenged and would probably increase the need for govt. social welfare payments.
"…the bible says no sin is greater than the next". Really? Where does it say that? Consuming alcohol is not a sin, but drinking to excess is. There are laws against that such as driving under the influence and drunk and disorderly conduct.
OK, Jamaica's population is about x55 more than our own. Now look at this article on CNS Business: http://cnsbusiness.com/content/sports-betting-growing-business-jamaica
So if they made 13.7 billion in the first 6 months of 2012 on lottery tickets alone (and this is still a growing market), then if you divide 13.7 billion by 55, it shows that our own lottery could have the potential to raise over 2 billion in 6 months. Admittedly this might be optimistic but even if you halve this figure to be on the reserved side, there is still the potential to make a billion on a lottery alone.
If sports gambling was also legalised here, the revenue making potential is astronomical. Personally I miss my horse racing, and wish I could watch it televised here and go the bookies to place bets as I do at home. Indeed, I wish we had horse racing here too I do miss it terribly!
It doesn't look quite so good when you convert the Ja $ figures into US$! divide all the figures by about 100
Sorry my bad – good point well made! So, using your math we still are looking at US$1-2 Million every 6 months. It's better than nothing at all, and given this is still a growing market, once established we could probably recoup in excess of US$5 Million a year from lottery ticket sales alone. Now if we were to legalise gambling, and tax gamlbing, then an enormous revenue could be made – I have no doubt whatsoever on that.
You keep proving my point that lottery players are mathematically challenged. Leaving aside the fact this does not reflect the Jamaican govt. revenue from the lottery in the first place, how do you take Ja$13.7 billion, divide it by 55 and find that it equals Ja$2bn, or, as you have it this time, US$1-2m every six months (US$1.00=Ja$89.00)?
You really should read beyond the first sentence of an article to try to get a full understanding of what the article is saying and an overall grasp of the issue before commenting. Who is "they"? These are not revenues of the Jamaican government. The Jamaica lottery is not run by the Jamaican government but by a private company. Instead, the Jamaican government derives its revenue from a 15% tax on the company's gross receipts. And don't get too excited – the figures you have given are in any event Jamaican dollars and would need to be divided by one hundred to find the CI$ figure. So let's do the math using your numbers:
Ja$13,700,000,000 divided by 55 = Ja$249,090,909; times 15% = Ja$37,363,636; divided by 100 = CI$373,636; x 2 = CI$747,272 p.a. government revenue.
It seems I was far too generous by suggesting less than $5m.
I always admire those who suggest a national lottery or some other form of local legalised gambling, but what often concerns me is the huge amounts of cash it is often claimed these schemes will bring in. We have a population of maybe 45,000. How many of those do you honestly expect will actually buy a ticket each drawing? Lets be generous and say 20,000 people will buy a ticket per drawing. How much do you charge per ticket? $1.00? or even make it $10.00 a ticket. So you take, gross, perhaps $200,000 per drawing. You have to give half of that in prize money, and cover all of the costs of running and administering the scheme. You maybe clear $50,000 after all that per drawing. How many drawings would you have in a year? one a month? lets say two a month. You make therefore $100,000 per month, or $1.2 million a year. Bear in mind these are overly generous assumptions, and the likely profit cleared is a lot less. You might also sell some tickets to tourists, but I doubt it will be a lot. Bottom line is a lottery is unlikely to bring in the large sums of cash this government seems to need to dig itself out of its hole. Study the Channel Islands lottery if you want to see how small local lotteries work and how much they bring in.
13.49; you are clearly misguided and no absolutely nothing on the numbers game, perhaps you should do some research before making such statements.
The game is huge and would bring a substantial amount of money into the governments purse, every day.
I think that's the exact point 13.49 was making…. unless I'm mistaken!
13;49
you sound like you are living in a world without some type of communication.
Are you aware that that we have 7 billion people in the world?
Are you aware that the world has now evolved to modern technology?
Are you aware that you can purchase just about any Lottery on that thing called internet?
I say no more.
You have seriously underestimated both Cayman's population and the likely money to be generated from lottery ticket sales. The population (according to the 2010 Census) is just short of 55,000. Once fully established, as another poster has already posted below, based on data from Jamaican lottery ticket sales, we could be making in excess of US$5 million a year from ticket sales. Those figures are purely derived based on the current population it seems, and do not include the potential sales of lottery tickets to tourists and, if the government were savvy enough, international sales of lottery tickets via the internet. The revenue potential of a properly thought-out and implemented lottery is very substantial and should not be overlooked. And as the same poster below has pointed out, if we were to legalise and tax gambling on-island, particularly sport gambling, then the revenue prospects are astronomical.
Maybe you and all the MLA can do the honourable stance for country and people and take a pay cut? Maybe stop paying certain persons in Government still getting a salary and doing not work.
Right. And while your at it why don't you MLA's stop doing anything that is stupid? Or is that too much to ask for?
I have an idea that nobody has thought about yet.
Why dont the Premier cut the double dipping, do away with the nation-building fund, and allow official travel of only one trip per year, and the travel can only be to Cayman Brac?
I shudder to think of what could happen with Mac and JuJu together on an island the size of Cayman Brac with no Mr. Miller to watch over them.
You mean no Caymanian has thought about yet. Everyone else thought it when he first did it.
Yes, because we all know Caymanians are far more stupid than any expat.
Don't you understand sarcasm when you read it?
"The latest figure that are believed to be on the table show spending plans of as more than $580million as a result of a more than 10% increase in CINICO costs…"
Health insurance companies basically wrote the Health Insurance Law in 1997 to ensure that they made at least 50% profit on their premiums!
The “Standard Health Insurance Contract” (SHIC) guaranteed that the health insurance companies millions of dollars in profits on the backs of hard working low wage earners, the persons with the least lobby power.
The health insurance companies cherry pick their customers:
Now Minister Scotland enact changes to the Health Insurance Law that will stop health insurance companies dumping persons that need medical care into the CINICO and make the Law work for our benefit also.
Minister Scotland do you not see that we are all subsidizing the health insurance companies?
Minister Scotland please stop the health insurance companies from taking advantage of us.
Minister Scotland iIf you do the above then CINICO will not require government subsidies!
When Cinico was first set up, believe the Minister of Health at the time intended for it to become a fully national insurance company, with every person paying in to it whether they had private insurance or not. With the change of Government those plans went out the door. For Cinico to be funded properly it should be changed to a proper national insurance.
13:00
I have to agree with you. A national Insurance should be supported by every worker in the country.
The people shouldnt be forced to pay money into these private insurance firms. especially when there are no liability or responsibility put in place to keep them from ripping off the people.
Those that can afford private insurance can still do so.