PHILIPSBURG--Finance Minister Richard Gibson said he does not expect any Member of Parliament (MP) to vote against the draft 2016 budget. “I don’t expect any Member of Parliament will vote to deprive St. Maarten of economic success,” the Minister told the press on Wednesday.
MPs made “no real objections” to the budget during the first round of debate, said Gibson. He added that that proves MPs have “no reason not to vote for the budget.”
MPs “cannot hold this budget hostage for desires you may have that are not related to the budget,” Gibson said.
The handling of the draft budget is to resume today, Thursday, at 2:00pm in Parliament House after the second round of debate was stalled on March 2, due to the arrest of independent MP Silvio Matser. Matser is a member of the Coalition of Eight, which supports the William Marlin Cabinet.
Matser’s arrest left the Coalition one MP short of the eight MPs whose signatures are needed for a plenary session of Parliament to commence. Opposition MPs, referred to as the “Super Seven,” were present, but did not sign in for the meeting as their way of pointing out the Coalition’s lack of majority.
The Super Seven has since publically announced they will sign in for today’s session to proceed. However, they have stopped short of saying they will vote for the budget.
In a press conference on Sunday, United People’s (UP) party leader MP Theo Heyliger said the opposition MPs wanted amendments to the draft budget, but stopped short of saying what the changes were. He said it was a negotiation process and details could not be revealed publicly.
Gibson said in the Council of Ministers Press Briefing that the resumption of the budget handling was an “important and crucial moment” for the country. An approved budget means Government will get access to some NAf. 55 million in capital funds to carry out projects to boost and “balance out the serious risks” to the economy.
One of those serious risks include the United States advisory about travelling to St. Maarten due to the Zika virus, which will impact the number of people who opt to vacation here, said Gibson. He also cited the “creeping up” of oil prices that will impact travellers’ disposable income and the decline in cruise ships’ calls to the country as of last year.
Prime Minister William Marlin said the “action plan” of his Cabinet is reflected in the draft budget and will lead to “quite a few things” for the betterment of St. Maarten. He said those capital projects are the catalyst for the “tug-of-war” UP has tried to create with its leader’s proposal, among others, to form a national Government.
“They want to try to make this Government not look good,” he said, adding his claim that UP “plagiarised” the Governing Programme of the “Red, White and Blue Coalition” formed after the August 2014 elections. That coalition did not make it into office.
Marlin maintained that he is not interested in any new Government and only sought support from the opposition MPs for the approval of the draft budget. “If they do not want to lend their support today or tomorrow, the budget will be approved,” he declared to the press. “There will be a majority. Mr. Matser is not going to remain in custody from now until September 2016.”
