In the opening paragraphs of his presentation of the budget for the fiscal year 2025/26, which was tabled about six weeks after the fiscal year began, PM Briceño remarked that it’s not the first time a budget has been delayed, and that the delay which is not unusual “is provided for in the Finance and Audit (Reform) Act.” This Finance and Audit (Reform) Act, “to make new and better provisions regulating public revenue”, was signed by the then Governor General, Sir Colville Young, on April 1, 2005, and it came into existence after there were demonstrations in the streets and near riots on Independence Hill in Belmopan.
The leader of the main Opposition, Hon. Tracy Panton, and others, had questioned the delay of the budget presentation. The Amandala had also remarked on the lateness of the budget, and said, in reference to the lateness, that to our knowledge it was unprecedented. The PM, for the benefit of all who questioned the tardy budget, said that in 2008 the budget wasn’t presented until July 14, and in 2012, the budget wasn’t presented until June 29. In both instances when the budget was presented very late, he noted, we were under the leadership of UDP governments. A “story” goes with both those budgets, and also with the recently presented PUP budget for fiscal year 2025/26.
The Amandala of July 15, 2008 said, “The budget is almost four months late. Finally this morning, Prime Minister Dean Barrow read the first budget of his United Democratic Party government (2008-2013)…” A general election had been held on February 7, 2008, and the UDP had trounced the incumbent PUP, 25 seats to 6 at the polls. The UDP weren’t strangers to government. The UDP had held office between 1984 and 1989, and between 1993 and 1998. The party’s leaders knew the ropes; they knew the personnel in the various government ministries. The UDP had its manifesto, the direction in which it planned to take the country. In the seven weeks between the election and the end of the fiscal year, the UDP could have prepared a budget.
So, what could have been the reason for the delay? When the UDP took office in 2008, instead of busying itself preparing the budget, it focused on digging out information that would prove that the PUP was guilty of diverting $20 million donated by the Venezuelan government for housing in Belize. Delaying the budget also served to amplify the charge that the PUP was corrupt, and that it had bankrupted the country. The UDP wanted to affirm to the people that they had inherited a country in shambles, a country teetering under the weight of the oppressive Super Bond. It took them all of 5 months to put the numbers together! Indeed, we have had late budgets prior to this one.
On June 29, 2012, going on 4 months after the general election on March 7, 2012, the victorious UDP presented the budget for the fiscal year 2012/13. The UDP spent their 2008-2013 government lamenting about the Super Bond, and trying to wrest BTL from the clutches of a Lord Ashcroft group which had purchased control of the nation’s telecommunications provider from the PUP’s 1998 to 2003 “privatization” government. The UDP called the election 11 months early, to take advantage of a divided PUP, and almost suffered a shock defeat at the polls.
The early election might have played a role in the UDP almost losing. Belizeans, who for good reason are ever suspicious about their political leaders, become increasingly so when they call “it” many months before the mandate runs out. The incumbent PUP, the 1989-1994 government, called the election 15 months early, in 1993, and though the forecasts had them winning handily, they lost. The 2008-2013 UDP government got a jolt at the polls in the 2012 general election, their 17-14 victory not being cemented until only a few seats remained to be filled. The UDP didn’t produce a timely budget in 2012 because it was shell-shocked, confused. Indeed, we have had late budget presentations prior to this one!
Belizeans know the problems, the pressure this government faces. There were no surprises at the polls on March 12, 2025, an election the incumbent PUP called 8 months early. While the implosion of the main Opposition, the UDP, contributed to the size of the PUP’s victory at the polls, most Belizeans believe the party had done a good job, in trying times, and so was deserving of another term at the helm.
The PUP might be asking why it can’t get a break. The people might say they are paying for the sins of governments past, prior to their 2020-2025 government. On the local scene, citrus production is still down, farmed shrimp production is still down, petroleum production is but a dribble, and the sugarcane industry in the north took a beating in the last crop. On the international scene, major military strife won’t go away; a US$125 million gift to improve education and electrification dried up, and a tariff war among the world’s great powers threatens to cause a decline in tourist arrivals and drive up inflation even more. Understandably, the extra time helped the government put the pieces together for the 2025/26 fiscal year.
All our focus should be on the numbers in the 39 pages of the 2025/26 “From Promise to Performance” budget, but much of our attention presently is on unrest between the government and its employees. Two weeks into the fiscal year, it became public knowledge that around the end of March the PUP had gifted its top employees a salary increase, and GoB’s other workers, [long-suffering employees, who had willingly (some reluctantly) given up substantial earnings during the pandemic years, and seemed satisfied with a frequent reminder to government about their diminished paychecks], provoked by the government’s generosity to its top employees, want theirs, now.
Speaking on the largesse from his government to its top employees, the PM noted that what those employees received costs the people around $300,000, while what some rank-and-file employees are asking for, an 8.5% increase in the salaries of all government employees, would cost over $60 million. Some government employees say all they want is what was withheld from them (a considerable sum) during the pandemic. The PM says the wage bill is large, and the government will have to see what it can afford.
Government employees are hurting because inflation, in some instances upwards of 30%, has greatly eroded the value of the Belize dollar. Obviously, GoB workers are not the only ones who are pressed in these inflationary and uncertain times. Farmers, fisher folk, taxi drivers and bus operators clamor for government’s tax take from fuel to be reduced, without success, because government is heavily dependent on those funds to pay its bills.
Where will the funds come from if the government yields to all of its employees’ demands? We haven’t had any significant input from the UDP; the party is still in disarray, but some experts say the government can easily find the funds to pay its employees what they are asking for, if it puts the collar on corruption, and improved tax collection from the business sector. Some experts say the government gave up $3 million in taxes when it increased the income tax exemption threshold to $29,000. In the past, a government under financial constraints retrenched employees to secure the salaries of others. God forbid we ever follow that path again.
All eyes of the nation are on the government ministers and the union leaders as they carry out the negotiations. All hearts of the nation are praying that the differences between the two groups are resolved amicably, and that our nation is better as a result of whatever they decide on. Hopefully, the matter is resolved soon, so we can give the 2025/26 budget, which was presented almost two months late, our undivided attention.