Miller continues boycott in absence of UK approval
(CNS): The independent member for North Side who returned to the Legislative Assembly on Thursday to see if the budget presented by the government had been approved said he was continuing his boycott. Although Ezzard Miller said he will be observing what happens in finance committee over the next few days but he wouldn’t take part. With still no approval from the Foreign and Commonwealth minister for OTs, the MLA pointed out that the UK had already refused this budget on three occasions and none of the members could be certain once the bill was passed by the House it would be signed by the governor .
Miller who did not contribute to the debate in the Legislative Assembly told CNS that he was still very concerned about expenditure levels. He said it was not possible for government to claim it had made cuts when core government expenses were some $25million more than last year. In addition Miller said he believed it would be very difficult for government to collect the revenue it was forecasting as there are only nine months of the financial year remaining. In some cases legislation will also need to be passed by the LA before government can begin to collect the new revenue adding to the time line problem of meeting the projections, he added.
Although the independent member said he had not yet had a proper opportunity to scrutinize the budget as he had only just received the relevant documents detailing the spending, at first glance he said there were some concerns.
Pointing to some of the transfer payments he said that things appeared to be doubled up with money appropriated for pre-school assistance while government had also increased spending on primary schools with the introduction of free reception classes.
“There appears to be a number of places where more than one ministry is doing the same thing and where the national building fund is financing programmes that are also being supported by other areas of government,” he said. “Having looked at the documents briefly it seems to me there are many areas where things could still be cut, but I intend to take a closer look.”
Miller lamented the fact that government has persistently failed to engage anyone else in the discussion about spending cuts especially after he had made so many suggestions about how they could be achieved. He pointed to two motions that he had brought to the House that government had said they would examine and had done nothing about, in particular, the changes to the Public Management and Finance Law.
“Government rejected my motion about amending this law to recentralize accounting in June 2010 because the premier said it was already being address. The only changes to the law the government have made however is to say that accounts for certain years don’t have to be audited and to remove the deadline requirement of 30 April to bring a budget to the LA,” Miller said as he pointed to the irony.
Having called on government several times to hold a special meeting of finance committee and invite private sector people on board, Miller said the government couldn’t just hand out documents at the last minute and expect people to just accept it unquestioningly. Miller said he needed to engage people and stop insulting everybody — including the UK.
Miller also said he was very disappointed with the budget in general as there was no hope for his constituents or any Caymanians. He said there was “nothing in it to resurrect Mr Entrepreneur who has been assassinated by this administration. People need something to look towards not blame and lamentations.”
He added: “There is no hope or inspiration here for young Caymanians and he has turned the glass ceiling into a concrete one with the projections for work permit revenue.”
Miller explained that given how much government now hopes to collect this year in permit fees then the boards have to grant those permits making it even more difficult for local people to get work especially more senior posts.
Commenting on the title of the budget speech Responsible Government in Challenging Times' Miller said it would have been better titled, ‘Contradictions and Lamentations as to Why I Couldn’t do What was Needed to be Done.’, as he pointed to the great rush the premier was now in after months and months of what he described as incompetence.
Category: Politics
Well the handful of people who voted for him must be impressed by his non-attendance. This man has a disproportionate amount of media attention given that he is the MLA with the fewest votes at the last election. You would think he had the backing of thousands, not 253 rural voters.
CNS ,perhaps it is time to update this headline as I believe Mr Miller is/ will be taking in Finance Committee.
Mr Miller, thank you for doing the right and honourable thing.Some people do not understand and so they criticize you.Just because you are a MLA does not mean that you have to go along if you feel they are doing something wrong,or about to do something wrong.I would like to use this analogy to make my point.The employees of a company select a small group of their co -workers as staff representatives to approach management for a pay raise.However on the way over some of the staff reps decide that they will take and hold the manager hostage until their demands are met.One representative is not in favor of this and does the honourable thing and refuses to attend the meeting. If the majority of workers are happy with the hostage taking then one would assume that they would remove the lone staff rep who objected.On the other hand,if the majority are against the hostage taking,then one would assume that the majority of staff reps would be replaced.In this scenario Ezzard is the lone staff Rep. who refuses to attend the meeting.Time will tell whether he has the support of the majority but sometimes a man has to stand on principles even if it costs him his job.Mr Miller I commend you for doing what I see as the honourable thing. Lenard.
pure nonsense
Mr Miller's epitaph will read "There is no publicity like self-publicity".
Sounds lke Miller prefers to make his contribution to the LA via the media.
As I have said before the honorable Mr. Ezzard Miller is the only person worthy of being called HONRABLE in the entire legislature. There is no one in the entire Legislative Assembly, including the Governor, Deputy Governor, Speaker and all others who are in any way honorable. They must also be in on the XXXX madness or must be asleep at the wheel while the madman keeps pressing the accelerator. God help us. Please step in UK…..sooner rather than later.
How many times is this man going to boycott? I'm not against boycotts, but it seems like he is ALWAYS boycotting. Boycotting doesn't make a difference to the UDP and we're paying him to ATTEND to the country's business at the LA. SMH.
I'M not impressed by mr Miller boycotting the budget speech in the legislative assemby, reason , north side voted for him to represent them, not for his personal agenda.
Very disappointed at his choice, the people of north side should be highly upset. No respect for the house, forget McKeva, its his duty to be there as the represenitive of north side whether he like whats happening or not. Its our money that's paying your salary Mr. Miller, one less vote this go round.
My dear child, I was one of the first to enter and vote for this gentleman, I'm not a faker, I call it as I see it, Mr Miller is our paid representative and his duty was to be at the meeting if he had no other pressing things to do. I prefer that he fight for us, but as said before, the personal idea of not attending do not sit well. He's paid highly to represent us and thats what I desire that he do.
Its a shame that we allow our reps to speak their thoughts and ideas and not ours. prove that he has north side at heart , he still have my vote but as it stands now I'm in doubt.
Proving exactly what Mr Miller?
You were elected to represent the interests of the voters who put you in the LA so get in there and do it, don't play childish games here.
I agree. My opinion is that the performance of this representative was despicable during the last CITN Panel where he reacted so childlishly. But then again he is being his usual arrogant plus thin skinned self.
We need grown men to be in the LA who will not take everything so personal.
Ezzard you get paid to be part of this UDP circus…..if you don’t like it step down in 2013…..have you forgotten in 2009 you supported this UDP government and voted for the Premier…..I can understand Arden and Alden wanting to boycott but this is YOUR Premier stay and take your medicine YOU voted for him…enjoy the kool aid I bet it don’t taste as good as it did in 2009