Cox: We cut as much as we could

The Premier and Finance Minister was speaking to a packed audience of more than 280 business leaders at the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce’s Power Breakfast at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess.

She said to have made more cuts would either have not saved any more money this year or hurt the most needy.

Premier Cox said: “Given the expenditure that is allocated to wages, further cuts could mean one of two things; cutting jobs or further cuts to grants.

“Cutting jobs would mean more people are unemployed. This would certainly put more pressure on the private sector, which is already rationalizing the jobs that they have.

“It would also mean increasing redundancies. To make people redundant would increase Government debt this year in paying out redundancy costs.

“Savings wouldn’t be realized for another year and while long serving persons look for jobs Government would probably be paying more in financial assistance.

Cutting grants further would mean the vulnerable would be further disadvantaged at a time when people are losing jobs.”

The Premier said Government cannot abandon its responsibility to provide assistance to those persons directly through financial assistance or indirectly through help agencies.