Bell’s ‘Opportunity’ Budget – who is he trying to kid?

Treasury Minister, Allan Bell’s Manx Budget, which gained unanimous support in Tynwald, despite the occasional criticism from some Members during the debate, has generally been reported on glowingly in the media.

Both Manx Radio and IOM Newspapers led with the ‘budget of opportunity’ theme and concentrated on the ‘positives’ in Mr Bell’s speech.

The Manx Herald has no objection to resources being directed towards tidying up the Island and its towns and villages – Mr Bell is right that many places around the Island do not give the impression of a country with a prosperous economy. We also applaud the Treasury in providing more funds than requested to kick-start the, long overdue, Energy Initiatives programme.

But in saying that, the Manx Herald is still firmly of the view that too much of the Island’s prosperity has been squandered by successive Governments over the years, and continues to be the case today.

Within this budget, claimed to create and share our wealth, is one particular example of this. £2m, the same amount as added to the education budget, is being placed in the legal costs reserve to help meet the anticipated cost of “a number of large cases” which are expected to proceed this year; a sharing of our wealth only lawyers are likely to benefit from.

Departments, such as the DLGE, whose planning division appears unable to manage its affairs correctly, are costing the taxpayer dear by, to put it politely, ‘cocking it up’ on a regular basis.

Strong leadership is required to ensure all arms of government are pulling their weight and not flittering away the hard earned income of this nation.

Inefficiencies, luxury projects and waste also need to be rooted out and possibly 10% of the current gross expenditure could probably be put to better use.

Trades Council President, Bernard Moffatt also hasn’t been handing out too many plaudits to Mr Bell saying that, although it was appreciated that efforts were being made to combat the disparity between the haves and the have-nots, it still wasn’t enough. In the Council’s opinion twice the £6.5m set aside for those on low-incomes should have been made available; and that this could have been done without putting the Island’s economy in jeopardy.

The Manx Herald believes that Mr Moffatt is probably correct to highlight this issue as even though an increase, no matter how small, will be welcomed by those in receipt of Mr Bell’s largess, undoubtedly for many, facing significant increases in food, fuel and other costs, they will hardly notice the difference - if at all.

Perhaps if the Treasury had been a bit more vigilant of the spending going on down at the MEA, Mr Bell would have had a few extra million available to ease the plight of those on low or fixed incomes.

Even those on middle incomes are potentially going to feel the ‘squeeze’; through the withdrawal of tax relief on life insurance and the failure to increase the 10% or 18% tax band threshold.

As per usual, through a use of ‘smoke and mirrors’ and positive ‘spin’, the Government propaganda machine has been able to convince the majority of commentator’s of what a wonderful job they doing – and all against a back drop of others, all around, floundering.