Panton to GOB: Clean House Before Tax Hikes

And while the headlines have been dominated by union demands and government responses, we took the conversation a step further, asking Opposition Leader Tracy Panton where she stands on the hot topic of tax hikes. Her response? Not so fast. Panton says before the Briceño administration even thinks about raising taxes, it needs to take a hard look at how it’s managing the country’s finances and where it can boost revenue without burdening Belizeans. Here’s how she broke it down.

 

Tracy Panton, Leader of the Opposition

”Absolutely not. We are not there yet. We must fix what is broken. We must stop the bloated contracts. We have to minimize the travel. I remember at one point under the Barrow administration; we were told you only go on absolutely necessary travel because what happens here at country must take precedent. The needs of the people must be placed first. When are we getting to get, as my colleague on my right side earlier, when are we going to get an accounting for the fifty-four million we floated as a bond, investing in the futures of tourism? When are we going to know how those money is spent and what impact those projects have had on our tourism economy and by extension, our wider economy. These are critical questions, and we can’t raise taxes until we are able to fix the system. The kind of hemorrhaging that continues, for example, at the customs department, the fact that we don’t collect taxes. At the Lands Department, there are lots of areas that require greater scrutiny and certainly trying to plug those loopholes, before we talk about increasing taxes.”