Devon Dick
OPPOSITION SPOKESMAN on Housing Andrew Holness and fellow columnist Martin Henry (May 5) have already objected to the Prime Minister's suggestion, and hopefully not an edict, that $5B designated funds from the National Housing Trust (NHT) be diverted for the purpose of education. The PM wants to change the law concerning the NHT to allow for a broader scope of strategic intervention. However, there are some credible objections to this move.
For one, the original mandate of the NHT has not been fulfilled. There are great housing needs. Therefore, if NHT has excess funds, then it should be channelled into giving lower interest rates, larger loans and more affordable housing developments. In fact, Mr. Prime Minister, this is the 10th anniversary of your stated intention to put most land in the hands of most people. As the good book would say there is much more land to cover.
The reality is that there are professionals who want to buy a house and the mortgage payments are too high. There are thousands getting below $3,000 a week as basic pay and there is not enough affordable housing for them. There are hundreds of thousands of squatters with many squatter settlements in St. James and Operation PRIDE needs an injection of funds.
Housing is a basic need, a human right. It is the place for family security and nurture. It is the first place of learning. Let us shelter all the citizens.
In addition, it seems unfair for persons who have benefited from an NHT loan or already have houses to make a decision to divert funds away from first-time owners to education when they could get better benefits and have a better chance of owning a home. The persons who should be consulted about diverting designated funds should be those who will be affected most, that is, those who 'nuh live nuh wey.' At the very least, there should be an AGM of the NHT contributors to make that decision and not just the parliamentarians.
In any case, though, I am no Queen's Counsel, but it does not appear legal to garner funds for a particular purpose and then after getting the funds to decide to change the purpose.
But even if it could be done legally, it would be a very dangerous precedent. It is like collecting an offering in aid of the church building fund and then the pastor and his or her leaders deciding afterwards to divert it to the educational programme of the church. It sends a wrong signal.
SPECIFIC NAMES
In addition, it appears that giving specific names to taxes is a sham. No wonder the Matalon Tax Reform Committee, which included the Director General of Planning Institute of Jamaica, Dr. Wesley Hughes, called for the abolition of the HEART Tax. The idea behind the Education Tax was that it would have been in addition to the then existing allocation from the national budget for education. Integrity in tax application is important to enhance compliance and better governance.
The PM is right in identifying that there needs to be an injection of funds. This was recognised in 1990 by leading education scholar, Professor Errol Miller, in 'Jamaican Society and High Schooling', who recommended that, "there should be a law to index the total recurrent education budget at, say, 20 per cent". Another idea could be the establishment of a National Education Trust to administer the Education Tax.
If the PM still wants to use some of the NHT funds, then it should be done within the mandate of the NHT. The principal's cottage at Glen Stuart All Age, Maggotty, St. Elizabeth is in need of refurbishing or rebuilding. There are other principals' cottages that need similar help.
In addition, Calabar High School had proposed a decade or so ago to have a joint venture with NHT to build houses on the campus for staff and nothing happened. The NHT funds could be used to build houses for teachers on campuses. The benefits are obvious. Having housing for teachers will facilitate quality education by retaining better teachers and specialist teachers. It would also help with discipline when teachers live on the school compound.
The NHT funds have been used to build the Emancipation Park and to invest in the acquisition of the land for Harmony Cove, however, to divert designated NHT funds is unwarranted based on the unfulfilled mandate of housing our people and the dangerous implication for tax administration and governance.
Rev Devon Dick is pastor of Boulevard Baptist Church.
