Dear Editor,
Let’s start with the big one – Both sides have always recognized the need for an incinerator plant, which independently neither can afford. Positioning an incinerator plant for both countries to use would be the single ‘best’ shared investment solution, so at the top of this list.
Both sides need a prison – combined we are only 36 square miles, how many maximum security prisoners do we have between us? Or, are we going about this the wrong way? Should we under a partnership agreement with St. Martin export our serious criminals to the Guadeloupe penitentiary and in return offer our prison converted to a minimum security halfway house, where minor offenders can work (for minimal pay) during the day, clearing the dump, cleaning roads, or as labourers on construction sites learning a new trade for after their release?
Both sides need help to restructure their tax and immigration systems – so why can’t every resident on the island have ID cards which are linked not only to their immigration status but also to their tax records, so that if they are not both immigration and tax compliant they can be caught at routine traffic stops or at the airports on departure or arrival?
We had that tax system 20 years ago, who can forget the requirement of re-entry permits and confiscated passports! But, an ID card linked to the tax system would be so much simpler.
Both sides have horrendous traffic congestion – isn’t now the time to introduce a luxury tax on car imports of 50%, a gasoline tax of $2 per gallon and (lets go one step further), a $10 per day additional tax on all rental cars. Obviously this would only work if both sides of the island were to agree and make it law, but apart from generating tax revenue and reducing traffic, this would also stimulate the public transportation and taxi operators.
None of these car taxes are new to the Caribbean, most islands charge up to 100% luxury tax, gasoline is $5-$7 a gallon (and more across Europe), and where in the world can you rent a car for less than $100 per day, certainly not in any other Caribbean nation.
Both sides should provide ferry services – between Philipsburg and Marigot and branch out to all accessible hotels and beaches; apart from providing an additional form of public transportation, the ferry rides could be promoted as an island tourist attraction.
Come on St. Maarten/St. Martin. It’s easy to get buried by the problems and most of the above I am sure have already been discussed and considered, but when it requires legislation for both sides of the island to benefit, only together can we find the solutions.
Name withheld at author's request.
