St. Martin News Network

What a load of crap! No matter how you coach a young entrepreneur, and how hard he works, at the end of the day, when there is nobody buying or customers are spending less, and government is fining you for tax money that you don't have, how in the world will any entrepreneur be successful on this island?! Any young entrepreneur that wants to get into business, don't believe that it will be easy. The doors of your business will not stay open unless your entire family work together as one, you are a slave driver, and you sacrifice your earnings to keep the business afloat. In St. Maarten, all you will be doing is working for the government to pay taxes, so good luck with all the coaching you get.

What a load of crap! No matter how you coach a young entrepreneur, and how hard he works, at the end of the day, when there is nobody buying or customers are spending less, and government is fining you for tax money that you don't have, how in the world will any entrepreneur be successful on this island?! Any young entrepreneur that wants to get into business, don't believe that it will be easy. The doors of your business will not stay open unless your entire family work together with you as one, you are a slave driver, and you sacrifice your earnings to keep the business afloat. In St. Maarten, all you will be doing is working for the government to pay taxes, so good luck with all the coaching you get. The government does not give the businesses any tax relief, and Mr. Tuitt knows that very well!

This is all talk and no action. Anyone knows why william marlin is on the down low?

St. Maarten’s economy has been in a depression for more than four years. What world is our government living in?

Yep, here come the nay-sayers. They are so accustomed to government not doing anything for them, that they cannot comprehend this current language.
This minister not only is a financial wizard, but is also an economist. If you people -the 3 contributors above- can do better, come up with a plan to stimulate the economy, if you can. Stop bringing down others when you can't do a damn thing for yourself and the country. At least the minister is governing with the people in mind. Back off and give this a chance. If you don't want it, don't take it, but the rest of us will.

@ Peter, why didn't you say to Shigemoto last year that the economy is in a depression for years when he gave his prognoses of the economy which certainly did not mention any depression? Based on what do you declare SXM's economy in a state of depression for the past 4 years? I hope you didn't pull a hair from your @$$, looked at it and came to that conclusion. I wonder if you can tell us what state your Guyanese government has your country's economy in, despite its natural resources. It must be very bad if the likes of you have to come here to find food to eat! Maybe you can be of use over there in Guyana. Go offer them over there your help. You are nothing more than a bloody nuisance here.

I hope Mr.Tuitt takes my opinion into consideration:

Many MP's are again on Parlatino trips: how much is that costing us the tax payers? Please provide the full bill for us your constituents to see.

The Prime Minister along with a high level delegation is attending the RIO summit this week. Please tell us how much that trip is costing us. Also who was part of the high level delegation and was it extremely important that so many people had to attend go on this and other "snoep rijzen"

Minister Tuitt, You have not told us as yet how you plan to increase revenue-where will you get money from to keep the government working- government workers paid and services to the public up to par.
I read that you are not in agreement with introducing a small fee for the numerous non residents who own vacation homes and condos. Only because the likes of LeRoy deWeever and his real estate cohorts do not like this plan as it will cut into them not selling more property to foreigners. But Mr.Tuitt everywhere in the world and especially the USA has property taxes. So foreigners are already used to paying property taxes. So how do you plan to collect more revenue? I hope it is not by placing more burdens on us the local work force who pay already more taxes up our gazoo, and we pay for the services of police, ambulance, roads, street lights, garbage pick up, fire department which we pay for all those foreigners who come to enjoy their condo/home on St.Maarten get these services because we the local work force pay for it. It is also dangerous to continue building more and more vacation properties as locals do not have financial access to these prices for homes, and the large inventory built for tourists (read: non resident owner) do not pay into the tax base anyways. So I ask you Sir, How do you plan to increase the Islands revenue?

My two cents on this: Incentives-tax break to help develop local businesses

@Government Spending & Shantza:

Great comments!!!

The first step, that can be done today...eliminate the 1% tax on bank deposit and withdrawals. This gives every business an additional 1% to grow their business - small but fast and effective.

hehehe... a financial wizard and economist who could not even balance his own check book in his private business. At times, his checks had more rubber than all the tires at NAPA.

Government should start by cutting the civil service in half, privatise ALL government-owned companies, cut the salaries of all senators and ministers in half, reduce ALL taxes by 50% and simplify the business and building permit process so that business licenses, and building permits are issued within 48hours.

:o, I can guarantee you that I was on this rock way before you, and your financial wizard and economist came here from Aruba after running LAGO out of town...

@Peter Gunn I totally agree with you that the civil service should be cut in half as well as the salaries of all the senators and ministers. Government should not be in the business to give employment but encourage entrepreneurship and businesses to employ more workers by giving them tax incentives and tax reliefs. We need a smaller government, just to oversee security, maritime, healthcare, environment, infrastructure, economy, finance, poverty eradication, and pensions. It is all good that the government wants to give entrepreneurs a boost by coaching them, but they should go take a course at the university for that. That is not the business of the government to do that, unless they are funding the university to coach these budding entrepreneurs. But, noone should think that with all the coaching that your business is going to be successful. If our main economy - cruise ship, transient, maritime, wholesale, and real estate tourism - does not increase then what else can we do on this rock, but just twiddle our thumb. Government needs more that tourism to upkeep our ways of life. First of all, there is a need for fishery, poultry farming, and agriculture. In times of starvation and hardship, at least the people can have something to eat. Government can collaborate with the French side when it comes to land. Secondly, there is a need for innovations and green technology. Why are people not allowed to have solar panels on their roof tops and do away with the excessive spending for Gebe electricity? The internet is now a way of life. Why do people waste their time on Facebook chatting nonsense instead of finding time to take a course in graphic designing, starting an internet business giving a service or selling a product, and marketing St. Maarten out to the world in a positive light? Banking, insurance, credit union, stock investing, and all that stuff can make our island be self sufficient and people happy.

This man is a great persons but a lousy politician and a disastrous minister. He has absolutly NO VISION nor comphrehemsion for the economy. It's going to become a disastor within short and this has nothing to do if I like him or not. Like I said he's a great persons but the post he's now covering will be the downfall of the government. Or is Blackman waiting for that so he can get back in once again through the back door. and enrich himself and his family like he did the first time around. Nver heard anyhtinh about that investigation!

@Peter Gunn. Yes you are right that St. Maarten's economy has been in a depression for years. Go back and look at the turnover tax of the businesses. The 1990s faired much better than in the 2000s and 2010s. Government taxes are increasing, rents and other business operating costs are going up, but the sales and revenues are going down. Those who did well back then invested their monies but today, what kind of money do you see to invest? Hardly anything! Businesses are barely scraping through to make ends meet. Just look at how many wait last minute to pay their monthly taxes. Do you think anybody want to stand in line on the 14th and 15th for hours to pay taxes if they had the money to pay beforehand? Furthermore, for government to encourage young local entrepreneurs to borrow from the bank to start a business, is like sending them to the lions. I say, work your butt off for someone, save your money, and then start a small business. Don't go big with high operational costs. See how it works for a few years, and if you think you are successful and can expand, then borrow a little, but don't hang your hat where you can't reach. Do not be a slave to the bank if you have to! Life is not all about making money. It is about sleeping well at night without the worries of sweating it to pay back the bank.

@WASTE OF TIME VERY GOOD ADVICE! we need more St. Martin people to take the bull by the horns and start helping to get this economy off the ground. To depend on governement to do that for you, well you may as well wait forever. Foreigners are coming here and making a name for themselves. Look at the Frenchside. What are our local boys doing? Just using crack and marijuana, partying with friends, stealing and burglarizing, and ending up in prison. If we work hard, at the end of the day, we must make it.

If you said Amjad McSood is a financial wizard and economist, I would agree with you...

Now, here is a man who came to St. Maarten not so many years ago with nothing, worked his way up to the top and is at present the richest and most successful business man on St. Maarten.... like some, he does not have a wall full of [ wasted paper] degrees..

Was SHIGOMOTO any better!

Yes he was to run the Country to the flipping dogs

@ a waste of time.. what you said is true the goverment it self is your worse enemy they want to tax you to death and still want you to survive,you can have all the coach in the world if people do not have money to spend they will not buy! unless we were all politicians,can you imargine the tax dep cannot find nothing to do, but to send you bills that you already paid as far back as twelve years ago to come back and pay these bill again a second time,this is hara**ment!! why does they not spend their time to go and find all the buisness and individuals that are not paying any taxes and stop hara**ing thoes who are paying their taxes.