And while that side show became the main event of budget day - the house sitting was really about the most important business of the legislature: to consider and approve the general revenue appropriation bill.
It was introduced today with the first full budget presentation of PM John Briceno's five year term. As Jules Vasquez reports, he did it in his own distinctive style:
In his first full budget presentation - Prime Minister John Briceno made history.
He brought a teleprompter into the House Chamber while it did serve as a nice read along tool for the member we can't say that it made the 83 minute speech that much more lively.
And that's also because there wasn't much good news coming out of a speech framed at the most difficult juncture in Belize's history:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"That this Budget Presentation comes at a juncture of unparalleled national crisis is indisputable. Belize is facing her most severe economic, fiscal and debt crisis."
And there was no sugar coating it - no need to - just lay all the blame at the UDP who ran this house for the past 13 years.
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"They turned over an economy that was in veritable tatters: a busted budget for this fiscal year that has required average borrowing of more than $1 million per day, a soaring level of unemployment that is afflicting 29 percent of the workforce and a total public debt that's the sixth highest in the world."
"Looking back, history will not be kind to those who maxed out the national credit card. It is no exaggeration to posit that the highest point in our country is no longer The Victoria Peak; rather, the highest point is now at the top of this debt mountain the UDP left for us to scale."
The sixth most indebted country in the world - but no one really wants to hear about how we got into this mess - it's how we're going to get out of it!
Briceno outlined a recovery plan focussing on debt management, cost containment and revenue enhancement:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"What we are elected to coordinate, is a credible, time-bound Recovery Plan. Renewal, reform and rebound are the lodestars of this Administration."
And a part of the cost containment means cutting public officers and teachers salaries:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I wish to underline the fact that every category of spending will fall compared to last year's budget. Painful as it surely is, the $60 million in salary adjustments and the $20 million foregone for increments and allowances in this Budget is one step in the hard slog back to fiscal fitness."
"This Administration has resisted retrenchment and protected the wages of those earning up to $12,000 per year. Thus, no one earning $250 a week or less will face a salary cut thereby ensuring that NO government employee well fall below the $5 an hour minimum wage."
But government also commits to enhancing revenue from those who can afford to pay, but aren't paying:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"As Government and the Joint Unions have agreed, this can be achieved first by sparing no effort to collect current taxes from all sources from whom such taxes are due, and simultaneously, by ensuring that legitimate, outstanding taxes are recovered immediately."
But it's not all tax and cut, the PM made sure to stress that there will be public spending in key area:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
- $15 million for the continued battle against Covid-19, including testing, personal protective gear, critical care supplies and so forth;
- $10 million for 238,800 additional vaccines to be acquired on discounted terms through the COVAX facility. You see madam speaker we know that an effective vaccine policy is indeed goo economic policy.
- $3 million for the ongoing food assistance program;
- $60 million for the Coastal and Caracol Highways;
- $3.5 million for new housing programs and low-cost housing support; this in partial fulfillment of PlanBelize
- $3 million for improvements to sugar roads and other agricultural roads; so that our goods can go from farm to table.
- $18 million for the ongoing restoration of the Phillip Goldson Highway; because safety matters
- $16.5 million, combined, for improving education quality and delivery and for Digi-Learn because we believe in our plan to develop an education nation.
- $5 million for upgrading of streets and drains nationally, with special allocations for rural and village roads;
- $12 million for climate vulnerability reduction initiatives;
- $17.5 million for ongoing restoration of the George Price Highway;
With this glimmer of hope - Briceno feels this budget is the beginning of a turnaround:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I am confident that our Recovery Plan can turn things around. We can reverse this decline and restore our tranquil haven."
"To do so, all stakeholders have to stop watching one another in a never-ending stare-down and start watching where we want to be in 5 years. At that glorious point of recovery, a few years from now, if we do the right things, unemployment will be in the low single digits, wages will be buoyant and growing, the economy will be humming apace at 4 or 5 percent growth per year, exports will soar like never before, and our dollar will be strong again."
