We appreciate the symbolism of Prime Minister Bruce Golding's veto of the proposal to spend a little over $5 million on a new car to replace the one that has been used by him and his two immediate predecessors over the last 16 years.

Mr Golding's intent is to show that in these difficult times everyone has to make sacrifices and that he is willing to lead from the front. We cannot but agree with the prime minister, for it is clear that, in this tough fiscal environment, the Government has some hard decisions to make. We, nonetheless, believe that Mr Golding has latched on to the wrong thing for his example of sacrifice.

After all, $5 million is not an outrageous sum to pay for a car, and certainly not one for the official use of the prime minister and his guests, including foreign dignitaries, who are expected to be transported in relative comfort and safety.

Decent transportation

The prime minister's security officials, given Jamaica's peculiar circumstances, ought to be reasonably certain about the reliability of the vehicle in which he is transported. It ought not to be the case, as has been reported to have happened six times already, that the PM's car malfunctions and breaks down in the middle of a journey because it, by and large, has done its time. We are sure that Mr Golding and his economic team can save $5 million from elsewhere in a $497-billion budget so that the PM can have decent transportation.

But as important as symbols are, we, like the vast majority of Jamaicans, are more likely to be impressed and motivated if Mr Golding demonstrates the necessary courage to fully confront Jamaica's challenges. He has a new opportunity, perhaps as early as this week, when the administration unveils its revised budget estimates for the current fiscal year.

Up to last November, the first eight months of the fiscal year, government revenue lagged substantially behind projections. And even with spending at $12 billion below budget, the deficit for the period, at $13 billion, was more than 300 per cent higher than targeted.

With most other targets already awry, it will be extremely difficult for the Government to keep to its fiscal target of 4.7 per cent of GDP. It seems likely that new tax measures will be required if the administration is to meet its obligations and avoid an outrageously wide deficit.

But the administration should not come to the country with a tax package, either now or at the start of the new fiscal year, without a comprehensive programme for expenditure containment - apart from saving $5 million on a car. It must, for example, demonstrate the will to cut a bulging, inefficient public sector that taxpayers struggle to pay. The central government's wage bill this year is more than 20 per cent higher than in 2007/2008 and that does not yet factor in pay rises for teachers.

We acknowledge that removing the bloat from the public sector can't be about arbitrary cutting for some sectors such as the police and areas of the health services which are undermanned. Staff in currently pumped-up bureaucracies can be invited to apply for posts in agencies where there is a shortfall. Thereafter, the Government must flush itself of this burden of excess that weighs so heavily on taxpayers.

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