TEATT Minister Grisha Heyliger-Marten.
PHILIPSBURG--Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications TEATT Grisha Heyliger-Marten said on Wednesday that St Maarten cannot be run on its current 530-million-guilder budget and needs “a cash injection of minimum 250 million” to function meaningfully.
“We need a cash injection of minimum Xcg. 250, million to run this country. If another government administration comes in and they continue dancing around that same 530 [million budget that the country currently runs on], that’s going to be the reality. We would go nowhere,” Heyliger-Marten said during the live Council of Ministers press briefing.
She said St Maarten’s three largest ministries remain underfunded despite consuming the largest share of the budget. “Budget 2025 is 530 million guilders. The ministry that has the most of it is education number one, Justice number two – education with 120 million, justice with 107 million and VSA with 97 million and all three ministries are still underfunded. What are we really telling the people? If we want to go there, let’s go there. So, the question is how do we fix that.
“Do you think Xcg. 530 million is enough to run this country? I would personally tell you from an economic standpoint no,” she added. “Of that Xcg. 530 million, TEATT only has Xcg. 22 million guilders. That’s all we work on and of that Xcg. 22 million, only Xcg 4 million we use to market this country and we are the backbone. We have to make sure that the economy is flowing so what are we really telling St Maarten is what you should be asking financially, holistically.”
She said the current financial situation makes it difficult to retain skilled workers. “At least three quarters of a billion [is needed] to run this country meaningfully to give them the right jobs, with the right salaries because when our people go away and they get a taste of the salaries over there, we can’t afford the salaries that they are getting over there, so we need to be pumping in more money.”
Heyliger-Marten said the Council of Ministers has only recently been able to fully function after entering office. “We have been here 16 months and I said it earlier in an interview... We have been here for 16 months. Of the 16 months, 6 months we were a caretaker government – 6 months. We got in officially in November of last year. We have only been in this position really working and being able to execute for the last couple months. We got in, in May of last year, the 2025 budget was already submitted so we had to work with budget 2024, we are here working with budget 2025, which is not the budget that we put together. We are now going to be amending budget 2025, so that it can at least be in alignment with what we want,” stated the minister
“You can’t have ideas with a budget that’s… not in alignment with your ideas... I’m not here to complain. I’m just giving you the reality.”
She added that limited ministry budgets force her to support colleagues. “This minister is struggling (pointing to Justice Minister Nathalie Tackling) and I have to sometimes take out of my measly 22 million and help this minister sometimes when she has issues (pointing to the Justice Minister). What are we telling the people of St Maarten? We need to find money. We need money to do right by the people and 530 ain’t making it. It’s just not hacking it and that’s the only way I can give you the reality of how we are right now and this administration – that’s the idea – the aim is to find a way to increase the budget by at least another 20 million – I for sure want to push that because the Minister of Justice can’t function, education can’t function – not with that measly budget although they are taking up most of the budget, they cannot function.”
