KINGSTON, Jamaica — Opposition Spokesman on Finance Julian Robinson has accused the Government of “hiding behind Hurricane Melissa” in the way it has framed the 2026-27 Budget.

Robinson made the accusation on Thursday in the House of Representatives during his contribution to the Budget Debate.

“I want to address something about the framing of this budget and how this government has been presenting its revenue measures to the public.

“The hurricane, we are told, is why these taxes are necessary. Melissa came, she damaged the country, the government needs revenue to respond,” said Robinson.

According to him, “That is the narrative being told. And on the surface it is a sympathetic one”.

However, Robinson asserted that a closer look at what the government was doing over the two years prior to the hurricane presents a different perspective.

“In two consecutive years, the government securitised future revenues from the Norman Manley International Airport and the Sangster International Airport, raising over $70 billion in 2023/24 and over $60 billion in 2024/25.

“What that means is that they sold off 10 and 12 years of future revenues of both airports to fund those budgets,” Robinson pointed out.

He said these funds were used in part to meet recurrent expenditure, the routine, ongoing operational costs of running the government.

“What that tells you is that the government was financing its day-to-day expenses by selling off future earnings from our airports. Money that those institutions would have received in the years ahead was converted into cash upfront to cover costs that a well-managed budget should have been able to meet through normal revenue,” said the Opposition spokesman.

“So this tells you that the revenue shortfall problem did not begin with the hurricane. That is a structural fiscal problem that predates Hurricane Melissa. Tax revenues were already inadequate before the hurricane arrived, because economic growth was already weak. The gap between what the government was collecting and what it needed to spend was already widening,” he added.

Robinson claimed the government was already searching for ways to bridge that gap and that Melissa did not create those pressures.

“What she did was provide a more compelling explanation for measures this government was likely heading toward, regardless of whether a hurricane had struck or not”.

Robinson emphasised that his stated position is not meant to minimise what the hurricane did to the country or to the people who are still living with its consequences.

“But the Jamaican people deserve an honest account of the context. And the honest account is that this government’s fiscal challenges did not begin with the hurricane. The hurricane just made them easier to explain away”.

— Lynford Simpson