It's said that nothing in this world is certain except death and taxes. That has never been more true than in today's Bermuda where a disturbing attitude seems to have taken hold in the corridors of power: we the residents of Bermuda exist solely to fund Government's wasteful spending habits.

The recent comments by former United Bermuda Party Leader Grant Gibbons and UBP Senator Bob Richards were on the money: overtaxing Bermudians ? to the tune of $50 million in 2005 alone ? is not a virtue. Government is not a profit making venture.

While it's reasonable for Government to turn a small Budget surplus each year, overtaxing us to the tune of $211 million over the past four years is a disgrace. Excess revenue of this magnitude should not simply be thrown into the Government coffers, but returned to the taxpayer as tax reductions in subsequent years. A quarter of a million dollars is much better used by the people, not politicians who think they've won the lottery.

Sadly, Premier Scott and his colleagues seem to measure their effectiveness on the basis of how much money can be extracted from our pockets: the more we pay the better job they're doing. Of course the opposite is true.

Good governance involves doing more with less. Typically, like most things in the New Bermuda, the inverse is true; the PLP Government is doing less with more. Much much less, with much much more.

Not only is Government's Budget growing at a worrying rate, but taxation is outpacing that growth. That might be tolerable if we were receiving value for money, but we're not, despite the incessant invocation of that tired phrase "The Social Agenda".

The outcome of this increased taxation and spending is that everyone wants a piece of the action. Cabinet is leading by example, treating this over-taxation as a licence to travel; permission to furiously swipe their Government credit cards; an incentive to lavish perks on themselves ? like two renovated residences for two Premiers; and allowing capital projects like the new Berkeley Institute to run obscenely over budget.

It's not surprising then that others, including the Civil Service and the BIU want their cut. Give the BIU their due, they were the more creative side, requesting a reduced work week for the same pay, which translates into a financial hit on multiple levels: an effective pay raise and increased overtime requirements.

It's bonus time in the public sector.

But who can blame everyone for drooling over that taxpayer slush fund. The pot of taxpayer funded goodies is being raided from the highest levels at the expense of those at the bottom. "The People's Government" indeed.

These tens of millions of dollars of excess revenue collected annually aren't even finding their way to programmes and organisations that would presumably qualify under the auspices of the vaunted but vacuous Social Agenda. Just ask the Salvation Army.

Here's an organisation quietly doing important but difficult work in housing the homeless, and the Premier and Health Minister show their gratitude through budget cuts and insults. Sad but true.

You see, Cabinet values their $340,000 parking lot over a homeless shelter in a period that the Housing Minister himself has described as a 'crisis'. Again, sad but true.

This taxation and wasteful spending will catch up with us soon enough, if it hasn't already. It's no coincidence that tourism and retail ? our most taxed sectors ? remain on a multi-decade slide, while international business ? the least taxed ? is booming.

Our future economic success depends on the reversal of the tax, tax, tax, and spend, spend, spend ways of the current administration.

Bermuda is an increasingly expensive place with taxation and fiscal mismanagement as its primary driver. But don't be mistaken. Government's insatiable appetite for revenue and unrestrained growth will catch up with international business as well.

The gap between Bermuda and our competing jurisdictions is narrowing as Government drives the cost of doing business in Bermuda into the stratosphere.

Our consumption-based tax system detaches us from our taxation to a large extent. If we filled out tax returns annually we'd be shocked at how much we pay in tax.

We would not just be complaining that Bermuda is expensive; we would be complaining that Government is overtaxing us. And we would be right.