Good articles on Bahamian local government

[PELLUCID]

As anyone knows who has followed my posts here for a while, I am a big fan of empowering Bahamians through better local government. "Simon" has posted a couple of good articles on the subject at Bahama Pundit:
http://www.bahamapundit.com/2009/11/local-government-for-new-providence-part-1.html
http://www.bahamapundit.com/2009/11/local-government-for-new-providence-part-2.html

In the comments, I am pretty harsh on Simon because he is a young pup who does not yet know how to condense his thoughts down to the really important parts. Do not let the length of his articles distract you from their importance. We need things like this from Bahamians, if local government is to succeed.

[Stone Malone]

New Providence is a different kettle of fish entirely - but for local government to properly work in Abaco we must be given more autonomy, more athourity and we must retain more of our tax dollars. Small remote settlements like Hope Town have been basically governing themselves for hundreds of years. It is only relatively recently that with better transportation and communication has Nassau had a real influence in our local affairs. (only they can decide where we can build docks...can you imagine? how have we managed all these years without them?) The central government is afraid that if we are given too much freedom that we will be so successful that it will reflect badly on them; and it goes agianst the grain for an elected official to hand 'power' off to someone else. Local government has made baby steps, but the progress is painfully slow.

[SamFamAustin]

Wow I would love it if the Abacos had a Comprehensive Regional Plan that had some legal beef to it, and that the central government would fund it along with a local grant match.

One sentence, dude.

[Shelby]

I agree completely with Stone. Frankly, the less intervention from Nassau, the better for Abaco. There's a reason Abaco tried to separate from the Bahamas back in the 60s/70s! :-)

[SamFamAustin]

we must retain more of our tax dollars

Stone's main point echoes in my mind. All the taxes, or nearly all, get sent to Nassau on the mail boat or the airplanes or the wire transfers. Little comes back. Follow the money, as they say.

On our little group of islands off Texas, we have about 5 billion dollars worth of property, which is taxed very low but the local tax allows our local government to be quite flush with adequate money. Of the portion of the hotel occupancy tax, about half is kept locally and not sent off the islands. I am not saying this is the way to do things, or that it is better "our way," but that if you want to do something local, you need local money.
-sammie :)

[Stone Malone]

you'd be hard pressed to find an Abaconian who doesn't mind sharing our tax dollars with the rest of our Bahamian brothers and sisters, but by the same token, you'd be hard pressed to find an Abaconain who thinks we get our fair share back...and that would include H.A. Ingram (you may have noticed I didn't call him 'honorable' ) cuz he's an Abaconian but he has no backbone and therefore gives too much of our money to "grandma in Acklins"

[oudi14]

Stone, the problem isn't 'Grandma in Acklins', not too many of them left down there, but the Govt. spends too much on New Providence, and the public service sector is way too large.
As I understand the law as written, 50% of all revenue from property taxes should be spent in the district in which it is raised. So if the government would just follow the law, we would be straight.
Also, and here the PM and I apparently disagree, Abaco, because of the amount of revenue it generates, must not be regarded as just another out island. We need a greater share of government funds spent here, which would generate even more revenue to be spent everywhere. And if other islands whine about it, too bad. A healthy Abaco benefits all the Bahamas.

[PELLUCID]

The key missing element for true local government is separate tax and budget authority. The local government needs the ability to raise its own funds, from its own sources, not dependent on the whim of Parliament. Likewise, it needs to be able to set its own spending priorities, independent of central control.

This is how it's done in most developed countries.

The drawback is that it does increase the total size of the government sector. There is not a free lunch. I think this is why most Bahamians I have talked to about the matter think it would be great to have less control from Nassau... but get uneasy about raising total taxes.

This has to be part of any honest discussion about better local government in the Bahamas.