Senator Mark Lizarraga Criticizes Spending as Short-sighted and Irresponsible

Mark Lizarraga

Lizarraga also lashed out at what he says is irresponsible and short-sighted spending, rather than any attempt at prudent fiscal management. He says that it’s not sustainable, and in the end, it is the taxpayers who will bear the brunt of that exorbitant spending.

Mark Lizarraga, Senator, Business Sector

“This budget speaks to spending everything that you can borrow, and then some. What the business community is saying is that we have to be realistic. We already owe more than any country per person per G.D.P. in the whole region – Mexico to South America. We owe more than any country per person. We owe more than any country in Central America. Where are we going with this? Where will it end? How will we pay for this? Already the Belizean people, each and every one of us, owe approximately twelve thousand dollars, and every year we have to find three thousand one hundred and fifty dollars for the budget…each person in this country. You may think that you are not paying for the budget, but you are. Every time you buy something – every pound of rice, every pound of beans…every pound of chicken has some component of taxes in it. Because they use fuel, because they use services, because they use electricity, because of whatever! Everybody pays taxes in this country, so we have to realize that it is our money. How can we continue to live year after year after year after year borrowing to pay debt? That is what we’ve been doing. Do you know that the dreaded superbond is now less than half of what we owe? Do you know that we have doubled our superbond? In the last few years we have doubled our superbond.”