Listening to a 3 ½ hour budget speech plus a half hour throne speech was heavy going on Monday (20) but it was required. The most exciting part of the whole proceedings was whether it was going to happen at all. Then we had the boycott of  Independent North Side MLA Ezzard Miller.

I also admired all the ladies hats that were on display, especially one worn by a lady dressed in blue with an enormous matching hat that must have been heavy on her head. She sat immediately behind Premier McKeeva Bush and I was thankful she did. Her movements, facial expressions and finger movements helped me get through the long proceedings. The lady was a very welcome distraction.

A slightly nervous looking Hon. Franz Manderson, Acting Governor of the Cayman Islands, opened the throne speech about 30 minutes later than the advertised time the Legislative Assembly proceedings were to commence. He had to also inspect the Guard of Honour by the RCIPS outside the LA building first.

The whole of his speech has been on our website since yesterday so I am not going to list everything. Please go to it if you haven’t done so already.  You will find it at: (http://www.ieyenews.com/2012/08/2012-throne-speech/)

He said that the Civil Service is committed to providing the Cayman Islands public with value for money and there are serious social concerns that we have only begun to tackle, such as crime and unemployment.

He praised the RCIPS saying we owed them all a debt of gratitude.

“In the past few months,” he said, “we have seen major arrests for serious crime; it is obvious that the additional funds which the police received late in the last financial year, have proved to be an example of a fruitful investment.” However, he never mentioned the axing or not of the police helicopter.

“Enacting the Bill of Rights and fulfilling its requirements, in the present economic climate, may call for a certain amount of creativity and innovation, as well as commitment to sustainability and good governance,” he said. The Immigration Department will continue to prepare for the enactment of this Bill of Rights.

The Temporary Homes Unit will “endeavour to transition the John Silver’s facility in West Bay” to the Ministry with relevant responsibility

A Deputy Governor’s Award will be given to high performers who produce a real-time perspective of performance management compliance across the Civil Service from a new audit programme.

Portfolio of Internal and External Affairs, Portfolio of Legal Affairs (including a Child Pornography Bill), Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Ministry of Finance, Tourism and Development, Ministry of District Administration, Works, Lands and Agriculture, Ministry of Education, Training and Employment and Ministry of Health, Environment, Youth, Sports and Culture, were all mentioned and specifics given.

Premier Hon. McKeeva Bush began his Budget Speech with his usual tirade at the previous PPM government and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) for continually moving the goalposts every time “he tried to kick the football through and score a goal” – the quotes were my phraseology to summarise Mr. Bush’s much longer analogy.

To separate the meat from the chaff in a 3½ hour speech that rambled all over the place with much repetition was very hard and I apologise in advance for anything I have missed.

1. FCO had wanted Cayman to have an expenditure of $528 million, but his government had come up with a projected expenditure of $531 million.
2. 24 new revenue raising measures would be introduced.
3. A 3.2 per cent salary reduction for civil servants.
4. Changes to government policy requiring contracted civil servants to work after reaching age 60 to take a pay cut if they receive a pension is being discussed.
5. Police officers’ housing allowance to be adjusted from $450 to $200 per month.
6. Civil servants hired from overseas will no longer receive a ‘moving’ allowance. They will be given a short-term loan – repayable within six months
7. Tertiary care cost rose to $18.6 million. (Note: This is $5.3 million more than expected.)
8. During 2011/12 financial year government spending grew to $546million. (Note: This is an all time high).
9. Rental payments for people in need was $700,000 more than budgeted.

10. Transfer payments for scholarships, poor relief, etc. rose to $34million. (Note: forecast was $28.8 million.)

11. Government would try to reduce the cost of its debt payments of approx. $60million a year, in total, on accumulative debt. (Note: this currently stands at approx. $590 million.)

This doesn’t seem a lot from such a long address but there was a lot of government back slapping too with Bush saying many times how prudent his government had been over the past year.

“As a result of fiscal prudence operating expenses had remained virtually unchanged since my government came to office,” he said and “all during the world’s worst ever economic recession.”

When the premier finally sat down he quipped that the budget was so good there would be no need to discuss it.