The Budget : What happened ???

[rb]

I totally forgot that today was the budget, can someone summarise what was said  ?

[Crixx_Creww]

i think the first thing mentioned was the unacceptable increase in the price of doubles...

[EmpireKing]

Manning talk...I heard something bout internet prices being reduced(i think)

30%tax increase on alcohol

[Saxito Pau]

I heard the differently abled get a "whopping" $100 increase in pension...

still waiting to hear if i have to abandon buying a foreign used car or not....I  really hope they ent put a choke hold on requirements

[EmpireKing]

i heard something about pc peripheral* prices being reduced

regional alcoholic drink prices hav been increased by 15% and international by 30%
also cigarettes have been increased by 15%

The Senior Citizens Grant(formerly known as Pension) has been increased by $100

[New Era Outlaw]

...well, what was said already, and the fact that there's now a ban on 'one-armed bandits'.

The Laughing Buddha sure is crying now.

[Kenji]

yeah basically it was some great promises tha we hearing since 2k3, and wtf is homework centers.
Yeah and they having foreign consultants com in to investigate the possible ramifications of doubles being 2 f**king fifty in chag

[EmpireKing]

i guess a homework center wud b just a place where youths can go for after school activities and obvisiously probably free tutoring

[ProtoJoe]

regional alcoholic drink prices hav been increased by 15% and international by 30%
also cigarettes have been increased by 15%

And its funny cause is effective IMMEDIEATLY! IE; prices have already gone up...

[W1nTry]

I was listening red 96.7 this morning and Blaze was real beating down the idea of a ferry service from Pt. Fortin and Sando to Carenage and POS respectively (sorry bout the spelling). I was like this man CLEARLY not living south. He was saying that widen roads... that sounded SO much like our present obsolete thinking government that I wanted to call in and cuss but refrained. This was part of the budget I believe thus how it's related to this thread. That aside, I not sure how 100$ more helping pensioners save to deal with inflation on their past 1100$ they were getting. AKA nothing really.
Then the whole alco increase, I will feel the side effects but at the same time this is fine with me, I doh drink THAT much. Smoking, FIAH for dem (sorry to the smokers) if it more expensive, then let ppl pay more to kill themselves and those around them, this not bothering me 1 bit.
I hear something about MEGA farms... I agree with the opposition here, that will seriously affect the some 20,000 small farmers around the nation AND what happen to the VSEP packages that Caroni OWING their worker TWO @#$%ing YEARS NOW??? I sure that land owed will end up in 'MEGA farms' Sounds remarkably like SuperPharm doesn't it? and that is owed by the illustrious minister of health FUNNY THAT!!!
What else... they focusing on education, health and crime GOOD, BOUT DAMN TIME. However PLEASE NO MORE PURCHASING 2ND HAND BLIMPS THAT BREAK DOWN IN 2 MONTHS!!!! AND DEFINITELY NO BUYING PRIVATE F&*KING JETS FOR GOVERNMENT TRIPS what the &*&(% was EVER UP WITH THAT?

[Synchronomyst]

...anyone...who says that they should widen roads to deal with the traffic issue as an imbecile.

That being said...Blaze is an imbecile. We have too many god damned cars in out country. We don't need so many cars. If they just make a dependable state subsidized public transportation system this would've never been a damned issue. Anyway...after I read the budget I'm coming back here to make noise. It's not a bad budget, eh...but...*steups*

[Spazosaurus]

I always hear my dad telling stories about how long time in the 60's as a lil boy he used to go up and down all over the place on the monorail thing. Whatever happened to the trains? IMO, if there's an efficient public transport system in place, there would not even be need for so many cars. People will say...hey...it will be quicker for me to take the train rather than jump in my car to go to work, therefore reducing the amount of cars on the road during peak hours, which will mean that people wouldnt have to get up at 4.30 am to travel from Cunupua to POS in time for 8am. Yet i hear nothing about a railway being implemented. What up with that??? This thread should be merged with the "Things that make you go WTMC" thread.

[Red Paradox]

What about sugar, has that increased?

[Cross]

Yo sorry for the die hard drinkers i feel for you all as seeing as christmas coming up and men will not be so liberal to say "EH COME DRINK BY ME NAH BOY"
As far as the smokers go that dude was right you need to pay some more to kill yourselves
THANK GOD GAS PRICES DID NOT INCREASE (Went to the gas station and fill up.....just in case he has a change of heart)

But on the issue of having too many cars on the road
Lets face it everyone sorry....almost everyone wants a car
and almost everyone of those who want a car can afford to get a car
Sorry if this may sound selfish but im not giving up my car to travel in a cramped hot maxi/taxi (sorry for those who have to but i was once in your shoe so i can say it
But i do agree on a better more regulated transport system the highly reliable.....like the great Metro service of NYC
THEN and only then will i opt to return to public transportation but knowning the government and whoever else takes over eventually (cause i know come election i not voting for present or past parties.....dookie if he step correct will recieve this doulga's vote *yea sorry im in between i can't vote along racial lines*)

Right....they will not implement a system as such because it seems any form of decent organisation is a TNT Government Repelant

[vivman1107]

Anybody keeping track of past budgets vs. actual spending? IMHO, is a heaping load of $hit and most people know it.

[Synchronomyst]

All budgets basically work like this. You are in Trinidad and Tobago. All the budgets only reach a percentage of their potential and efficience.

[Arcmanov]

I agree with all about the traffic thing.  The present system does not work. The almost absolute FAILURE of the PTSC has forced the travelling public to depend almost exclusively on taxis/maxis, which were never meant to replace the PTSC, but to supplement it.

Now we have a situation where the present fleet of taxis/maxis simply cannot cope with the number of people who use them on a daily basis.  The other day I had to travel to Arima via City Gate as my car was down, and had to remember (by force) all of my old maxi-rushing-shaolin-techniques to get out of there in a reasonable hour.  Those unwilling to fight it out are condemned to wait HOURS before being able to go home.  Why should this be?
I'm all for a new public transport system (bus/rail?) thats efficient, ON TIME, available, and it should be a profit-driven, PRIVATE company.  PTSC should have NOTHING to do with, since we've plainly seen what has happened to public transport under their watch.
The budget should have focused on things like this, not bloody casinos and alcohol, which in my view were singled out by Manning from purely religious and so-called moral grounds.  There seems to be a kind of christian, right-wing agenda being pushed by the PM in particular in all his decisions.  You cannot legislate a commodity or industry just because your 'Government is against it'.
I don't gamble, drink (much), or smoke, and couldnt care less what happens to these things, but I do support one's right to be able to do so, without unnecessary taxation.
I say unnecessary because the PM did not justify ONE economic reason for this increased taxation.  So when casinos are forced to close because of the high costs ascociated with running this type of business, what are their workers, who are now on the breadline, supposed to do.
I don't know about you, but to me, this REEKS of religious fundamentalism creeping into matters of state, which I detest in ALL its forms.

(whew)
End rant.

[Kenji]

Okay i was a lil too hyper, but does anyone else think is a homecenters is  a good idea. i mean what 12-18 year old going too leave there home in the evening and go to a center.

 and most of the students go be under aged, so unless they get there parents to pickup and drop them off, some of them go have trouble to get there, even on saturdays , and i also feel that these home work centers not going to replace lessons either. And finally, should they really be nescesary, students spend 8- 9 hrs a  day, mon-fri in school, and teacher does get paid , last time i cheack

[Crixx_Creww]

hmm interesting views by all

the casino gambling thing.
Take a look at its taxation in places such as nevada and newyork.
They thrive their inspite of/because of the taxation involved.

The government making moral decisions isnt a bad thing.
I personally thank god everyday that owning guns has remained out of our constituation.
And even though yes if you really wanted a gun you could do so very easily, if guns were legal for everyone to own, trinidad would be like a million times worse off than it is now.
It would be like baltimore, liqour store, gun store, liqour store, gun store.... yeah...

THe metro is the greatest railway system ever and it became that way and remained that way NOTTTT through privitisation but by government control and a veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy veryyyyyyyyyyyyyy active transit workers union that has fought tooth and nail bitterly for as long as its been around to make sure that the stringent government standards as to how the rail must run, is balanced with the safety and needs of the workers being met. This way in the end things work out for both sides.

A certain uncle of mine is the transit union president of nyc and he resently came to trinidad to speak about this very issue of trinidad needing a rail system and more active unions seeking the interest of the workers, which by extension betters the experience for the public.

Yay @ increased cigg prices, maybe now my mom will quit and my asthma will stop killing me when she smokes in the house....



But on the more serious note, when i was listenin to a summary of manning on de radio dis mornin while drivin to work an i hear him say dat all online games goin an get ban...

I pull over on de side of de road an raise de volume... i was like WTF he mean online games ban???
THen is like gambling games, slot machines lal lala i was liek ORRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

phewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww


watch how i was single handedly starting ah revolution if he had ban my lineage and fear sweat nah!!
i was burnin tires and ram and  old hard drive and keyboard an ting in de road like dem talparo people( i does call anywhere pass lite house talparo... sorry)

[W1nTry]

( i does call anywhere pass lite house talparo... sorry)

That explains alot...