A bill leading to "death by financial strangulation" for the Corporation of Hamilton could be tabled today after winning approval at a hot-tempered Progressive Labour Party caucus meeting.

The legislation was passed at Wednesday night's Alaska Hall meeting after Premier Ewart Brown expressed frustration at the lack of total support from the parliamentary group, according to sources.

Backbenchers had stalled the bill the previous week, with many said to be against a move Mayor Charles Gosling says would cost the Hamilton municipality more than $8 million a year.

But a number weren't there to vote on Wednesday and it is said to have passed in their absence, with the City Hall flag flying upside down yesterday.

Insiders predict the bill will be tabled today and, with two extra House of Assembly sittings now pencilled in for next week, would likely be debated next Friday.

PLP members could be placed under a three-line whip, according to sources, leaving backbenchers to decide whether they want to risk being disciplined by thwarting one of the Premier's biggest ambitions on his final appearance in Parliament.

According to a draft of the bill, it would stop both corporations from levying wharfage and ports, which Mr. Gosling says would remove $8 million a year from the Corporation's revenues.

It would strip Hamilton of hundreds of thousands of dollars more in property tax by changing the city boundaries to exclude areas such as Par-la-Ville car park, Bermudiana Road and Albouy's Point.

And it would hit the city with a $200,000 a year land tax bill by saying the corporations are no longer exempt from the draft valuation list.

Mr. Gosling says the municipality would quickly find itself in a financial mess, meaning there would be no option other than for Government to take over. He has dubbed the legislation "death by financial strangulation".

But he argues local government is vital to maintaining high quality service in the city and giving citizens a voice.

"I really hope that the parliamentarians take a time of self reflection and make a decision on whether they feel this is in the best interest of Bermuda," he said last night.

Dr. Brown and Zane DeSilva, the Minister in charge of the $800,000 review into the future of the municipalities, have both declined to confirm what the legislation intends to do.

Both again declined to comment yesterday.