Its more a$$ backwards than that. In return for collecting room tax, the homeowners received a reduced property tax rate. in essence the government ended up receiving less tax at the end of the day. but we have a bunch of idiots running things who have absolutely no clue what they are doing. keep the standard property tax rate and leave VAT out of vacation rentals

ok. and how much is a hotel stay on your island? and exactly how many times do these houses get rented? and exactly how much do these homes spend in property tax every year? and how many people do these homes that rent for very high cost employ? and how much VAT do these homeowners spend in materials or tradesmen to take care of maintenance? and lastly how many restaurants, cleaners, car rentals, boat rentals, grocery stores, boutiques do the patrons of these high end rentals benefit from these visitors? one last point. lets say this $10,000 a week rental is for a 4 bedroom house for 6 nights 7 days. that works out to $416 per room per night, which is exactly what Atlantis charges, but trust me the dough is spread around and not kept within the Atlantis world where a select few make all the profit. think before you make these silly statements.

arwallace your link article is unsubstantiated unresearched bs fear mongering. Get real facts not fluff. An increase in explosions??? Seriously?

It is a well supported opinion that morr than half of the poor souls given the death penalty are innocent. Just look at how many people are acquitted of murder years later. The ability to clearly without doubt know if you have the right man in a murder investigation is not easy and often circumstantial. Watch a movie called Let Him Have It. Based on a true story.

The simple solution is to decriminalize illegal drugs, ie. Marijuana, and the drug gang problem disappears overnight while creating new GDP and new tax income and let's the police have more time to pursue the not important issues.

am i wrong?

Talk has a few good points but mostly unresearched unsupported statements that are mostly inflammatory.

Lol baldbeardedpirate.

Have all these candidates obtained ministry of works approval to post signs up everywhere?

Look, you are all forgetting that hotels get an immense amount of tax concessions. Many go belly up after a few years, so the governments up with almost no tax at all. Most vacation rental homes change hands every 10 years or so. that's lawyers, painters, bankers, real estate agent who are all making income on the sale every 10 years. And the government makes 10% tax every time it sells. 10% on the sale of the home is much more than a piddly couple of dollars in tax on a weeks rental. This is one area of the Bahamas economy which everyone seems to have an opinion and yet not a single person has any understanding of the topic. If a hotel is failing using the second home owner rental as a scapegoat is cheap and petty. Maybe the hotel should take a look inward and evaluate why the business is failing. perhaps trying to charge 5 star rates on a 2 star hotel without hot water or reliable fast internet is the problem. Not to mention the terrible customer service skills. and I blame the unions.

I support the idea of trying it. It certainly can't be any worse than the current situation. At least he is trying and working new ideas new ways and hopefully better ways and ideas. You can't cry for change and then cry foul when the change happens. Single sex schools could be very beneficial if people would give it a shot. And I don't think he is saying cut out sex ed, but change the way it is taught so it is a more wholistic approach where we get kids to look at the bigger picture and longer term goals. Focus on the family not just the simple facts of sex. Teach why family is important, in the context of sex ed.

Minnie = old boys club and old guard. LBT = new generations. Simple really right? Of course not.

Simple but long term solution- double teacher salaries. It won't pay any benefits for 5-10 years minimum.