This final Budget from the Premier and Minister of Finance closes one chapter and opens another. For years, Bermuda’s fiscal challenges were managed through borrowing. Today, what appears to be fiscal stability is being financed largely through Corporate Income Tax revenue tied to global tax reform. That shift has strengthened the balance sheet and created breathing room but it has not resolved the inefficiencies and cost pressures embedded within our institutions.

Everything in this Budget hinges on the CIT. Yet when we examine the Government’s performance apart from that revenue stream, we return to the lived experience of Bermudians.

Improved accounting does not automatically translate into improved outcomes. The broader economy, as experienced by working families, still reflects high costs, uneven services, and limited mobility.

The true measure of any Budget is not how it reads on paper but whether it delivers measurable improvement in people’s lives, particularly in the core areas of infrastructure, education, healthcare and social services.

There are elements within this Budget that align with long-standing Free Democratic Movement principles. Bermuda’s current tax structure relies heavily on customs duties and payroll taxes, which place disproportionate pressure on productivity, labour, capital and entrepreneurship. Movement toward reducing those burdens eases household expenses, increases take-home pay for workers and lowers operating costs for businesses, creating space for growth and competitiveness.

The FDM has consistently argued that economics is about more than revenue collection; it is about people. By lowering costs and reducing barriers, we build an interdependent Bermuda that empowers Bermudians, cultivates private sector growth, tackles the high cost of living and strengthens long-term resilience.

Seventy percent of CIT revenue has been earmarked for debt reduction and financial assets. That is prudent but retiring debt due in January 2027 should be viewed as a baseline fiscal responsibility, not a defining achievement. The tax and duty reductions introduced are modest and largely symbolic in scale. More meaningful and durable reductions become possible only when long-term debt servicing costs are permanently lowered.

The FDM’s economic policy committed that 80 percent of realised CIT revenue would be used exclusively for debt retirement. By accelerating principal reduction and lowering interest obligations first, government can create permanent fiscal room in future years to reduce payroll and productivity taxes in a way that does not depend on an unproven and volatile revenue source.

Nowhere is the tension between permanent costs and new commitments more visible than in healthcare. The expansion of acute care capacity is, in many ways, rightsizing a mistake made 16 years ago when the then Health Minister, Zane DeSilva, committed Bermuda to long-term infrastructure payments, locking the country into substantial fixed costs for decades.

For years, the Bermuda Hospitals Board has operated under sustained austerity pressures, affecting staffing levels, morale, and patient flow. Now additional commitments are being layered on to a system already stretched.

Steps toward universal government-funded healthcare are now being introduced on top of those fixed obligations. Universal healthcare may be politically appealing but without first correcting cost distortions it risks expanding permanent commitments in a system that is already among the most expensive per capita in the world.

The FDM’s position is that access must be widened by lowering system costs through fee transparency, insurance reform, stronger preventative care and improved long-term and community services. Fiscal space must then be used to drive affordability, efficiency, and competitiveness rather than expanding permanent obligations.

Labour reform signals another important reality. With the Government claiming unemployment at 1.4 percent, Bermuda is effectively at full employment, even as many Bermudians have emigrated in recent years due to rising costs and limited opportunity.

In such an environment, natural wage growth is one of the few mechanisms that increases earning power and drives more competitive compensation, particularly when employers are benefiting from tax relief. Reviewing restricted job categories at this stage risks suppressing upward wage progression and weakening the position of Bermudian workers.

Labour policy should reinforce higher earning power and upward mobility in a tight labour market, not interrupt it prematurely.

Social stability remains a deeper issue that has yet to meaningfully improve. Bermuda continues to lose young men to gun violence, women to domestic violence, individuals to suicide, and lives on our roads. These are not isolated events but indicators of unresolved strain. Strain in childhood becomes instability in adolescence and that instability manifests in recurring tragedies that communities continue to endure. Untreated trauma does not respond to balance sheets; it must be addressed at its foundation.

At the primary and middle levels, recent Cambridge Checkpoint results show student performance in English and Mathematics remain below international benchmarks. At the senior level, IGCSE outcomes reveal that too many students are leaving school without strong passes in the core subjects that determine workforce readiness and long-term opportunity. These foundational gaps are directly connected to our social and labour challenges, because discipline, confidence and economic mobility are formed at these stages.

Despite education consistently receiving one of the largest allocations in the national Budget, increased spending has not translated into measurable improvement. Funding alone is not enough. Clear performance standards and transparent reporting must accompany investment if real progress is to be felt.

As the Premier closes this chapter and with the imminent passage of this Budget, responsibility now shifts squarely to ministers to deliver measurable outcomes with the resources allocated to them. Increased funding must now translate into visible improvement in the daily lives of Bermudians.

Likewise, an effective opposition requires disciplined oversight and the presentation of fully costed alternatives so the public can see a credible governing vision. Bermuda deserves a debate grounded in numbers, policy, and accountability.

The Free Democratic Movement has set out clear policies across education reform, healthcare efficiency, housing stability, economic diversification and tax restructuring. These proposals are designed to strengthen earning power, reduce long-term costs, and expand opportunities whether Corporate Income Tax revenues exceed expectations or moderate over time. That is the standard Bermuda deserves.

Last year’s Budget leaned heavily on the sinking fund. This year, global tax reform has presented Bermuda with a rare fiscal opportunity. Whether it becomes lasting reform or temporary relief will depend not on revenue but on leadership. A competent and caring government is not measured by external windfalls but by its willingness to lower long-term costs, improve outcomes and govern with discipline when opportunity arises. The rubber must now meet the road.

∙ Omar Dill is chairman of the Free Democratic Movement