Is there a similar program available for central and northern Abaco where the pine forests were also significantly damaged?

…it’s the huMAN, not the dogs per say. If you’re going to have dogs that can cause these types of injuries you should be responsible to have your yard ‘fenced’, your dogs (and owner) trained and your pet placed on a leash when outside at all times…the authorities should have the same level of enforcement as they do for traffic related violations; no wait that’s really just a taxation scheme isn’t it?!🤔

If you’ve read the PM’s quoted words surely you can support his statement on the issue. As Bahamians we have no right to involve ourselves in our neighbor’s’ constitutional rights, whether those rights are debatable or not. However we do, and the PM as our constitutional representative, have a right to speak up on our behalf when their actions impair our ability to have a happy and fulfilling life.

When are we as a country going to ‘grow up’? Any and all significant issues facing the country could and should be addressed in a Bipartisan fashion.

Let’s not complicate the issue of economic (poverty) migration even more than it is.

Bahamians ‘like’ rich migrants from any nation, regardless of ethnicity.

Bahamian laws, especially our constitution is vague and inadequate to address regular migration. In fact we have no current program to deal with regular migration from Haiti, ie folks wanting to work: employers ready to hire located in that country. As a result these folks oftentimes have to sail here along with the other “illegals”. We, the so called ’black’ Bahamians have enough of the blame and so much to fix before we look under the microscope to find more issues…Haitians have been and will continue to be a vibrant part of this nation.

Let’s stick together and fix these issues and stay focused on the major ones at hand.

I’m told the flooding on the northern island of this twin Island the Lucayans called “Bimini” has been significantly aggravated by dredging of its harbour by the Bimini Bay developers over the years. Continuing ‘development’ of the area once called East Well (now Bimini Bay) will damage a natural fresh water cistern that drains from north to south with even further environmental degradation of this once beautiful isle.

Government should look into these concerns as part of their assessment and correction of the drainage and flooding issues. Bimini’s recent tourism boom should warrant greater government scrutiny and support.

Hard to believe this won’t have a negative impact on the Andros environment?! Hopefully an environmental impact study will be done and made available to the public and especially environmental groups…with expected sea level rise predicted with glacial melt not sure any Bahamian island can afford the sea water inundation attributed to “mining”?

The reminder by an earlier commenter is correct; VAT was supposed to be accompanied by reduction in Customs Duties. Unfortunately governments are fiscally greedy and rarely like to give up existing taxes. However, as per recommendations by the New Zealand VAT Consultant, Dr. Brash, and the data from that country as well as other nations who instituted VAT/GST’s, is that other taxes should be reduced substantially or eliminated. VAT Collections have been better than expected. The Bahamian government owes it to the populace to lower other forms of taxation, especially Customs Duty.

Given our predicament of being a substantial net importer of goods, Customs duties can be a great way to use government policy to control our fate, putting the brakes on items that are bad for our environment, health, crime, agriculture and local businesses. While promoting those things that will encourage entrepreneurship and development in the Bahamas.

Let’s use our brains; consult widely and create a ‘White Paper’ that moves us forward.

It would be interesting to know what were the motivations and thought processes of Mr. Smith and his fellow delegates to the “1972 Constitutional” discussions? Certainly viewing through hindsight the resultant constitution, especially with regards to granting of citizenship, has been problematic to the modern day Bahamas. There are now obvious anti-woman, anti-dad and xenophobic consequences written into that document. Indeed changing these and other constitutional guarantees, by nature of ‘referenda’ is difficult. While referenda resists changes by whim and fancy of subsequent governments it also results in the persistence of recalcitrant ignorance and discrimination.

Doing nothing means these negative consequences persist through generations. I suspect the better and certainly the less problematic process is for the present government to fix these and other issues through legislation, even if someday a despot leadership changes it. What is true in the history of humanity, especially those who reside in civil society, is a ‘right’ given is not easily taken away! When government is bold and willing to lead in a bipartisan fashion great policies can be established which are more likely to be embraced, popular and stand the ‘test of time’. The interesting byproduct of this type of governance is the great importance given to elections, voting and involvement in civil society.

Mr. Morley raises interesting points. His “10% accuracy” number given the limited ‘n’ of his ‘study’ may not reflect the entire deficiency of the Inland Revenue assessment, however the “90” claim is clearly ridiculous. It’s likely the level of accuracy promised by the agency doing this Island wide evaluation (Tyler Technologies) would not have promised such a high number. Their evaluations would have been based on estimates (and guesses) especially given the economic upheaval of the Covid pandemic.
Real property taxes for commercial real estate is a vexing problem as not all ‘commercial’ properties ‘sell’ stuff that VAT can be used to estimate. Government already has the value of their ‘rent’ included in their Business Tax statements. ‘Rent’ is not necessarily affected by one’s neighborhood given the esthetics of one building over the other. Whatever formulation the government decides to use they need to be considerate of the role businesses play in the economic well-being of the country and not ‘bite the hands’ that feed it!
As for residential real property tax, government should be reminded that though easier to assess and enforce than many other forms of taxation, ones home is not income generating, and largely a fixed place of abode in the Bahamas (a “forever home”). As such those folks on fixed incomes (the majority of the population) and especially retirees are easily pushed into financial hardship with overzealous rates. Governments need to ‘budget’, and for a country entering its fifth decade, show the maturity of reaching across the aisle to craft budgets that will reflect our realities over successive administrations.