SXMElections.com

That St. Maarten must “pay its own debts” as stated again recently by Kingdom Relations Minister Ronald Plasterk (see Wednesday paper) is nothing new to the population. The Dutch side over the decades had never seen much of the development aid sent from The Hague to the Central Government in Willemstad and – contrary to Curaçao – was not allowed to contract loans.

Its share in the Antillean national debt was also relatively small, particularly compared to that of the Island Territory Curaçao. So when the Dutch Government agreed to take over most of that burden in connection with the constitutional reforms per 10-10-10 St. Maarten did not benefit to a huge extent, also due to local administrative shortcomings that could not be overcome before the deadline imposed by the Netherlands.

All this in no way means the Dutch side has nothing for which to thank the Netherlands. To the contrary, disaster assistance, including emergency funding provided after devastating hits from Hurricanes Luis and Lenny, went a long way in helping “The Friendly Island” get back on its feet.

Moreover, Dutch public entities played an important role in the harbour shares buyback deal that allowed investments for the upgrading and beautification of Philipsburg and surroundings. That cooperation most definitely can be called fruitful.

Of course, the Government of St. Maarten created these debts to the General Pension Fund APS (NAf. 70 million) as well as Social and Health Insurance SZV (NAf. 87 million), although part of the latter had to do with an old dispute over covering the co-insuring of family members, which has been paid by the workers since last year. That premiums also were withheld from employees, but not passed on to these institutions, obviously does not speak well for the people then in charge.

But these arrears now must be settled somehow by the end of this month. It appears plans to involve the still-empty new Administration Building in a deal with APS did not materialise and although the SZV management was rather optimistic some time ago, nothing has been heard since.

In addition, there is still 15 million guilders in revenue that Finance Minister Martin Hassink must substantiate for the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT to give its final approval to the 2015 budget. The government-owned companies were to contribute to such, but in the case of Princess Juliana International Airport SXM this needs to be done in another manner than with dividends and it’s not clear to what extent the others will be able to comply.

The remaining members of the Gumbs cabinet and Members of Parliament may not want to hear this, but something will have to give soon. Consequently, budgetary cuts and/or income-increasing measures could yet prove unavoidable.