On cusp of windfall or response to cries?

THE EDITOR: Open letter to Finance Minister Colm Imbert.

You spent at least eight years ardently promoting and desperately justifying the three per cent property tax. You argued the country was in dire need of this tax revenue and vigorously defended the three per cent figure for years.

I just wonder what prompted you to suddenly reduce it to two per cent? Why not to one per cent or no per cent at all? Is it that the country is no longer in need of the revenue? Do you know something that the citizens don’t? Are we on the cusp of a windfall? Surely we have a right to know.

Or could it be that you heard the cry of the people dissenting and you responded accordingly? In that case, citizens are pleading for an appropriate response to the dire crime situation – the home invasions, murders, robberies. The same citizens have been pleading in vain for protection, being consistently denied adequate and competent policing, firearm licences, or even just pepper spray so that our women can have some form of self-defence from assault and rape.

Our children are crying out for quality education that will allow them a chance at making an honest living. Our infirm are in need of an efficient health service that meets their health needs, that will afford them easy access to healthcare and reasonably-priced medications. Our complaints about the denial of these basic human rights have been falling on deaf ears for years. So please, if you have recently acquired a hearing aid, I beseech you to dial it up so that you can hear the sobs of your citizens.

Unfortunately, my suspicion is that this one per cent reduction may just be in response to public threats that this tax may cost you (the PNM Government) the election in 2025. If your turnabout decision is a play to hold on to power, it makes me question the validity of your figures and methods in the first place. It further makes me wonder how you would imagine that persistently and ignorantly dismissing the basic need of our people for safety, food, education and healthcare would make your crew a viable option at the next election?

GHASSAN YOUSEPH

via e-mail