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And while the Ashcroft affair is consuming the Prime Minister’s executive energies, what about the City Council. They can’t pay their bills – it’s the oldest refrain in public affairs. And guess what? The council will come looking to you to cover the shortfall. The PM outlined the sketch of a plan for a garbage tax today but insisted it must be matched with a pay cut for the councillors.

Hon. Dean Barrow,
“I believe there is no way the council will be able to get out of its additional financial hole except by trying to expand the revenue base. In blunt straightforward terms, that will at some stage mean asking people to pay a little more. I suggested that one possibility is a nominal charge for the collection of household garbage. But I am saying there is no way the City Council dare go to the public to talk about bearing additional strain if the councillors will not ser the tone by themselves agreeing to make sacrifices by way of some kind of decrease in their stipends.”

Jules Vasquez,
“So will you request it, insist upon it, or exact it?”

Hon. Dean Barrow,
“I will discuss with the City Councillors first off all how to proceed. All things being equal in terms of the equation that I have just described, which is that they can’t move forward without additional assistance, I will hue to my position that the additional assistance must come together with some tangible signal on the part of the City Council that they are prepared personally to make sacrifices.”

City councillors take home an annual stipend and allowances of $31,000 before tax.