UT a fork in us, Mr. Editor, we're done. Yawn. The annual Budget Debate is history. Yawn. The House on the Hill has approved a total estimated expenditure of $917 million by the Government of Bermuda for the forthcoming financial year commencing April 1 ? and, incidentally Mr. Editor, who was that person who years ago had the foresight to peg the start of the financial year to April Fool's Day?

If I sound tired about it all, yawn, I am. It's been tiresome these past two weeks ? despite our attempts to bring an end to the monotonous monologues and to instead inject dialogue and meaningful, parliamentary interchange into what passes for debate.

Few of us ? literally, and I mean literally ? hang on to the edge of our seats, if at all, listening attentively during the two-week, seven-hours-a-day, 42-hour long affair; although I will give credit here to Finance Minister Paula Cox, who pretty well sat in her chair throughout (as best as I could tell, Mr. Editor, because, truth be known, while I try I wasn't always able to remain in mine) and, may I also say that in sitting she followed very much in the footsteps of her late father when he was responsible for Finance.

It ain't easy to stay the course ? whether Opposition or Government. As for what it takes, Mr. Editor, let's just say that it requires a certain and leave it at that, for now: although there are a lot of other adjectives, proper and colloquial, English or Bermudian, which many of your readers might prefer to use, to describe, accurately, what goes on at this time in the House on the Hill.

Here's a couple of choice snapshots of how it went:

The Opposition set aside eight of the 42 hours for the Ministry of Labour, Home Affairs & Public Safety. The Ministry is comprised of nine "heads" (parliamentary Budget speak for departments,: there's Headquarters / Administration); Defence; Police; Corrections; Immigration; Registry General; Fire Services; Security Services and Delegated Affairs; and Labour & Training).

Sure, it's an important Ministry but we chose to concentrate on only three ? Police, Corrections, Labour and Training ? in the interests of time.

So what happened? The Minister responsible, Randy Horton, read for six of the eight hours. His shadow Maxwell Burgess was confined to two. End of story. End of debate.

The efforts of the Education Minister Terry Lister paled by comparison. He opened with a three- and-half-hour brief and was graciously given an additional half hour by the Opposition to wrap up out of a total seven hours that had been allotted to Education.

At one stage of the reading, there were nearly a dozen civil servants in the House listening, keeping a watching brief (surely a much-abused, misunderstood word, Mr. Editor) and they outnumbered members actually sitting in their seats in the Chamber by a two-to-one ratio.

The last day rolled around and the final seven hours were devoted to three of the half-a-dozen heads that make up the Ministry of Health and Family Services: Health Department, Child and Family Services, and Hospitals.

Minister Patrice Minors was into her third hour of reading, after lunch, and there were fewer than six members in their seats, including the Minister, who was actually standing, and the chairman who had to be there.

I think we pipped by one the numbers of civil servants who were also there. Mercifully, Minister Minors managed to keep her brief (that abused word again) within three hours (thank God) and that gave her Shadow Louise Jackson and six of the rest of us (four Opposition, two Government) four hours to get some words in, too ? although none of us got to read from prepared, pre-packaged presentations (thank God, again).

Meanwhile, the Minister only got five minutes to reply at the end and you might reasonably conclude that Her Majesty's Opposition had by then run out of patience and goodwill.

And that, Mr. Editor, was how the Great (yawn) Annual (yawn) Budget Debate (yawn) ended. Not with a bang but a whimper.

A late-night whopper

UT we weren't actually done for the day, Mr. Editor, not by a long shot. There's always legislation to be reviewed and approved before it's home for the night.

We had one whopper which actually wasn't a Bill, in the traditional sense, but was the sort of bill most of us understand but do not appreciate if we are paying ? and this one was for paying, folks. The Government was looking for retroactive approval for some $24.5 million it had overspent in this year's Budget, that is for the financial year ending March 31 2006.

Some of the larger items on the list included:

Social Insurance ? portability and medical claims: $3,480,500.

A further addition to the KEMH subsidy of some $4,594,600. ?

An extra $3,076,600 for the Ministry of Education.

Pay award settlement and overtime in Corrections of $3,235,000.

Extras in wages and fuel for the Public Transportation Board in the sum of $1,210,000.

A further $1,970,000 for advertising and promotion in Tourism.

The first instalment of $1,900,000 for the ICC Cricket World Cup preparations; and,

Continuing post-Fabian foreshore protection works totalling $3,200,000.

What's that expression, Mr. Editor? A million here and a million there and pretty soon we are talking about some serious money. I wish that I could report that the supplementary got the thorough grilling it should have, but sadly it's hard to drill down when only the Government Minister responsible has the "facts" and explains them in such a way so as to make them sound ever so reasonable (notwithstanding the large sums), and the hour is late, and members are exhausted by the tedium of it all.

Some of them absent even. The sun had long since gone down and we in the Opposition were down to ten members when debate on these supplementaries began. I don't remember exactly how many they had on the other side but I do recall that it was more than us. Whips, Mr. Editor, are meant to notice these things.

No break today

BSENCE, we are told, makes the heart grow fonder. If you're a party whip, Mr. Editor, it only makes the heart beat faster. Such was the case when increases in motor vehicle licence fees came up for approval.

The man in charge was the other Scott, Michael, who was standing in for the real Minister of Transport Dr. Ewart Brown, who also holds the Tourism portfolio which required his presence at some big conference or the other in Berlin.

Minister Scott mentioned something about TCD having made some "major strides in efficiencies" in recent years, as the enhancement justified a five per cent increase in licensing fees. He was, of course, reading from a prepared brief, but they ended up fighting words.

The Opposition Shadow Jamahl Simmons led the charge. He countered that the increases were unnecessary ? in view of the success the PLP Government was having in raising money elsewhere in taxes ? and the proposed increases would once again hit the little man hardest.

Shadow Finance Minister Pat Gordon-Pamplin concurred: if there have truly been efficiencies, she said, then the increases were unnecessary. (Actually, the truth of the matter is, Mr. Editor, that the PLP was just continuing the practice that has developed over the years ? that started under the UBP ? and that is, to raise Government fees every two years to roughly stay in line with the rate of inflation.)

But that's no reason why the people don't deserve a break today, is it? Thus it was that it came to an actual vote ("names. Mr. Speaker, names": we saw that they were down on numbers). But as it turned out Government had just enough to get by. They prevailed by the narrowest of margins, one vote, on straight party lines, 15 for, 14 against.

By the way, it should not escape your notice folks that this meant that all Opposition members were present and accounted for ? which was not bad for a mid-week, mid-evening vote at the end of another long grinding day of the Budget Debate.

Then fix it, dear Walter

ORDS were exchanged, Mr. Editor, but there was no vote on increases to health insurance premiums. They are set to go up by a whopping 18 per cent as of April 1. The rise also happens to come on the heels of 13 and 11 per cent hikes in the previous two years ? as well as on top of a six per cent rise in hospital rates which will also take effect next month.

Won't somebody please sound the alarm? Shadow Minister Louise Jackson did. She stated the obvious: "Lord knows our health care costs are going through the roof."

No, not the roof at Lefroy House, Mr. Editor, although that was the subject of some debate earlier. There is a hole in the roof there that's been there since Fabian struck. That was two and a half years ago.

Mrs. Jackson, like the rest of us, couldn't understand why the roof hadn't yet been fixed. Lefroy House is home to seniors. As most of listening Bermuda now knows, Minister Without Portfolio Walter Lister, also MP for one of the Sandys constituencies, told us that we were looking in the wrong direction.

"Don't look at the hole in the roof," he admonished us, "look at the seniors." He wanted us to focus in on the quality of care which the resident seniors are receiving. He neglected to mention, Mr. Editor, whether or not a course in astronomy is now a part of that care.

But Mrs. Jackson made the point: who among us would tolerate a hole in our roof of our home for this long? Fix it.

Back to rising health care costs: in her role as an advocate for seniors, Mrs. Jackson highlighted yet again just how serious the problem is for those over 65 years of age. Pensions will only be increasing by four per cent which might be just enough to keep pace with rate of inflation, but certainly not enough to keep up with the escalating cost of health care; and even worse, the health care increases take effect next month, the pension increases won't come through until mid-August.

How bad is it then for people over 65? At last report, out of the Department of Statistics, there were 300-plus seniors without any insurance at all.

That was a couple of years ago. Mrs. Jackson reports that the number is growing.

The new maximum monthly pension is going to be $1,075 a month ? and not all of our seniors receive the maximum. Meanwhile, according to the 2004 Household Expenditure Survey, the average senior citizen's household spent a total of $1,210 a week on a broad range of goods and services, of which health care expenses played a major part.

It has also been estimated that a Government pension is the primary source of income for at least one-third of Bermuda's 6,000-plus seniors.

You start to get the picture?

"Real pension reform is still to come," opined Mrs. Jackson. "A couple of dollars increase a month doesn't cut it for me".

Nor for our seniors, Mr. Editor, nor for our seniors.