Opposition Leader Mark Golding speaking on the constitutional reform issue in Parliament on. (Photo: Llewellyn Wynter)
March 18, 2025
#BudgetDebate2025: Golding hits back at ‘run with it’ talk, accuses JLP of ‘emptying the cupboard’
Opposition Leader Mark Golding has sought to explain the context in which former Finance Minister Dr Omar Davies used the term “run with it” which the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has constantly used to accuse the People’s National Party (PNP) of being reckless with the country’s resources.
In seeking to clear the air, Golding has also accused the JLP of hypocrisy.
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“The JLP government loves to refer to ‘running with it,’” said Golding during his contribution to the 2025/26 Budget Debate at Gordon House.
As to why the comment was made? Golding said Davies was referring to the continuation of the construction of the East/West Highway from Mandela Highway in St Catherine to May Pen, Clarendon which the JLP had opposed.
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“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 outlined.
“Oh what a tangled web they weave, when they practice to deceive,” he remarked.
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He went on to point 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 cited 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”.
“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,” he added.
“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,” Golding said.
