Finance Minister Ardwell Irion successfully tackles backlog of financial statements

PHILIPSBURG — Finance Minister Ardwell Irion is diligently working on the backlog of annual financial statements. On Wednesday, he presented these statements for the years 2019 and 2020, accompanied by an announcement that the first draft of the annual financial account for 2021 is ready and that the deadline for handling it in the Council of More...

Lofty words but hardly any deadlines in policy plan for 2022
PHILIPSBURG — The draft 2022 budget closes with a deficit of 124.1 million guilders ($69.3). No surprises there. Revenue is projected to be 409.3 million ($228.7 million) and expenditures 533.5 million ($298 More...

PFP against efforts to silence MPs, rush through the 2022 national budget
~ Faction proposes to extend debates into Parliament recess ~ PHILIPSBURG – With only one week left before Parliament goes on recess, Party for Progress (PFP) Members of Parliament (MPs) Melissa Gumbs and Raeyhon More...

MP Angelique Romou submits amendments to the 2021 Budget
~ VAllocates 440,000 for school materials and school breakfast program ~ PHILIPSBURG — As a Member of Parliament and an advocate for education and youth, Angelique Romou has been keeping a keen eye on the More...

Subsidies take up one third of 2021 budget
PHILIPSBURG — A third of the expenditures listed in the draft 2021 budget is earmarked for “subsidies, contributions and income transfers.” Out of the budget’s total of 613.1 million guilders ($342.5 More...

Finance ministry focuses on cost-cutting measures
PHILIPSBURG — Cost-cutting measures top the list of priorities at the Ministry of Finance, it appears from Minister Ardwell Irion’s presentation about the 2021 budget to Parliament. Focus points are fuel More...

MP Buncamper questions landfill maintenance
PHILIPSBURG — The budget to maintain the landfill is lowered by 610,000 guilders in the draft 2021 budget. Member of Parliament Claudius Buncamper (United St. Maarten party) wants to know from Minister Egbert More...

Is the economic growth projection too pessimistic?
PHILIPSBURG — Is the projection of 3 percent economic growth this year on the low end and therefore too pessimistic? That’s what MP Claudius Buncamper wants to know from Minister Ludmilla de Weever (Tourism More...

MP Buncamper: “Tax collection goes from one extreme to the other”
PHILIPSBURG — “Does the government presently have a policy to handle the outstanding tax collection seeing the pandemic we are in, or are we bullying taxpayers into paying or losing their property?” This More...

Increased budget for Prosecutor’s Office triggers questions
PHILIPSBURG — The budget for the office of the prosecutor general increase by 125 percent to more than 1.5 million guilders. “That’s an increase of 863,000 guilders,” MP Claudius Buncamper notes in one More...