Opposition Leader Mark Golding has clapped back at the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), accusing the Government of “running with it” a term the JLP often directs at the Opposition, while accusing the PNP of being reckless with the country’s finances.
During his ongoing contribution to the 2025/26 Budget Debate on Tuesday, Golding explained the context in which he said former Finance Minister Dr Omar Davies used the term “run with it” when the PNP was in Government 20 years ago.
As he moved to explain, Golding also accused the JLP of hypocrisy while noting that “the JLP government loves to refer to ‘running with it'".
According to the Opposition leader, Davies made the comment while referring to the continuation of the construction of the East/West Highway from Mandela Highway in St Catherine to May Pen, Clarendon which he said the JLP had opposed.
“So opposed to it were they that they disciplined the [then] Mayor of Spanish Town, Dr Raymoth Notice, for attending the opening of that leg of the highway. But now they have extended the same highway to Williamsfield [in Manchester]. And that same highway is now being sold on the market to raise money for this coming fiscal year’s budget,” Golding stated.
“Oh, what a tangled web they weave, when they practice to deceive,” he remarked.
He pointed out that the budget for the 2024/25 fiscal year was funded by over $70 billion of non-tax revenue from the sale of 12 years of future income. “That meant taking what was to be earned over 12 years of Jamaica’s future revenues from the Norman Manley International Airport, and selling it off to spend now,” he said.
He also noted that the money was used to finance various current expenses – “a one-time so-called reverse income tax credit, one year of other tax relief that is going to be an ongoing annual cost to the budget, and some other expenditures”.
Said Golding, "None of these will have a lasting beneficial impact on the future of this country. Recurrent expenditures ought properly to be funded from revenues generated in the year in which those expenditures are incurred. Not by selling off future income and leaving the cupboard empty for years to come. Not one school, one hospital or one water reservoir, or any other lasting national asset, has been built with those funds. Nothing that will deliver solid benefits to the country throughout those 12 years".
“And when you add that to the $9 billion expected from the sale of the government’s remaining shares in TransJamaican Highway, it looks, sounds and smells like ‘running with it’ to me,” he said.
