We will forget the election promise, not the tax
Dear Editor,
During the elections Andrew Holness and the Jamaica Labour Party made election promises to the electorate. One promise was that we would sleep with our doors wide open — no crime. He could not have thought we believed that one.
Now to satisfy another election promise, the nation’s poor, especially, will shoulder a heavy tax burden. Which is more important, taxing the poor in order to keep an election promise to a few, or telling that segment of our society that the election promise made to them cannot be kept?
One thing is sure, our people have short memories. We suffer from the proverbial “nine-day wonder”. After nine days all the election promises made and not kept are forgotten. We will go back to business as usual, as if nothing happened.
With this new tax burden, especially the gas tax, I am not so sure that the voters will forget.
Apart from what the Opposition People’s National Party will be saying, the hardship citizens will endure will be a constant reminder of a Government that imposed taxes that will be a burden on the poor to satisfy an election promise of tax relief for a few.
Authnel Reid
authnelreid@aol.com