November 16, 2010Dear Sir,The Premier decided in March, 2012 that she would withdraw the ‘Exemption From Land Tax’ that was granted in 2005 to seniors who lived in their own property. The Premier then said that any senior whose annual rental value exceeds $50,000 will now be billed for payment of Land Tax. This amounts to about 24 percent of the seniors previously exempted. I think this is unacceptable, as it is discriminatory and highly flawed and I will explain why. I think that it is common knowledge that from 2005 until 2012, real estate sales and rentals fell by about 30 percent. Today, there are approximately 600 apartments and condos for rent. The Grand Atlantic condos on South Shore with 100 percent financing available are not exactly flying off the shelf.Despite all of this the Premier and Finance Minister raised the ARV of all the properties on the Island by just under five percent on January 1, 2010. I don’t know how she could arrive at that decision in light of the reality of the Bermuda housing sales and rental market at that time. Seniors are not responsible for Governments revenue shortfall. Some of the seniors, including myself, are over 75 and a few are over 80 years old. We have been paying taxes before the Premier and most of her Cabinet were born. And now we are faced with this demand from seniors because the Premier and her Cabinet have landed us in this financial mess, which was not in any way caused by the seniors.The Premier and her supporters blame the Government’s financial problems on the global recession. The global recession has had an impact on every country in the world. In Bermuda, a lot of the Government’s financial problems are self-inflicted. I will give you a few examples.1) The $7 million bailout of the BIU.2) The fiasco caused when the previous Premier Dr Ewart Brown, on the airport contract for servicing private planes and signed off by Premier Paula Cox cost the Bermuda taxpayers nearly $3 million.3) The Government caused havoc with our finances by granting untendered contracts to their cronies which then led to massive overruns eg. Heritage Wharf, and the TCD, which cost Bermuda millions of unaccounted for dollars.4) The situation at BLDC when the Deputy Premier allowed two members of the BLDC board to elevated themselves to consultants and charged the Bermuda taxpayer accordingly.In 1963, my wife bought a piece of property. The advice coming from the bank and the real estate agency at the time was ‘to get a piece of the rock’. I helped build the house I live in a the present. I worked seven days a week to complete it and then we had to rent it as we could not afford to live in it. My wife told me that some of her friends would say “that’s a lovely house you have”. My wife would tell them “it’s not really ours yet, it’s the banks”. We didn’t go on holidays, everything went towards the mortgage payments. We paid it off in 1972. It wasn’t all work, two of my children were born during that time. I hope that what I have just said will help some people realise that not everybody is fortunate enough to inherit property.In closing, if the Premier’s new policy was not just a money grab, the Premier had options. The Land Tax Department could have revalued the properties of the 24 percent of seniors affected. People should realise that the higher this Government sets the ARV on property, the more money the Government collects in taxes all the while, totally ignoring the realities of the present day and real estate market. I am sure the Premier will tell us that it is prudent fiscal management or good governance. I am sorry, I don’t get it.IBROXDevonshire