Cayman Islands Government to stop Dart 50% tax

The new Cayman Islands PPM government says it is standing firm over its objection to the former UDP government’s decision to allow the Dart group to take half of the tax it collects in all its hotels and tourism accommodation over the next decade as part of the ForCayman Investment Alliance. Kurt Tibbetts the Progressive’s former leader of government business and veteran politician, who has returned to the planning ministry said that government is currently in talks with the islands’ largest developer to try and reshape the agreements signed before they current government came to office and the tax rebate was unfair to existing hoteliers and had created a sense of expectation with new ones.

Although the a reversal of the West Bay Road closure appears now to be impossible Tibbetts said he was trying to put the negotiations to bed and improve on other areas. Speaking at the PPM’s national council meeting on Saturday night, the planning minister warned however that the things which were done before the election could not be undone.
Nevertheless, the cabinet’s most experienced minister said that there were several other things that were not yet etched in stone and it was important that government did what it could to prevent the country being the loser in the deal signed in December 2011.

Tibbetts said as the developer has now completed the Esterley Tibbetts highway extension the group was anxious for it to open but Tibbetts said it would not be Gazetted until the parties had reached agreement on all of the elements.

“We don’t want to deal with things piecemeal and we need agreement on everything,” he said as he promised to reveal everything in detail once the talks were finished. ”Some things can’t be undone,” he added as he pointed to earlier agreements. But with the recent stalemates on the verbal agreements Tibbetts said government was trying to restructure the deal so Cayman would be better off from the deal.

He pointed to the proposed tax rebate for Dart of some 50% of the accommodation tax for ten years which he said was not only unfair to other hoteliers it didn’t end there as he said, “Every developer who comes to us wants this now,” Tibbetts revealed. He said that this was a matter that government had insisted must be changed and he hoped to have some agreement by next week which would be public as they had nothing to hide. In addition, Tibbetts promised that government would monitor closely local employment and that Dart was aware the CIG would be watching the work permits.

“I don’t want anything from them personally I only want what is best for my country,” the minister told the meeting, to loud applause. “We will defend our wicket to ensure the country doesn’t get bowled out.”

Updating the public and party faithful on other matters in his ministry, Tibbetts said there were other potential developments in the pipeline. He said the government has met with several entities that are looking to do business in Cayman many he said who had revealed they were waiting for the outcome of the election as they had been uncomfortable with how things had been going.

He announced a planned $15m renovation of the Marriott hotel which has been bought by a group of investors that also involves Caymanians and that approaches had been made for a five star Conrad-Hilton in Beach Bay and a golf resort in Frank Sound and a $360million development which has a 15 year long plan. Along with the Dart hotel plans, a hotel at the Shetty hospital site in East End and other potential plans. Tibbetts said government was interested in sustainable developments which would be well timed. 

The planning minister said he could not say that all of these projects would happen but there was interest again and government would be ensuring that due diligence would be done as it wanted to see the “right type of development: and he promised it would not “giveaway the shop.’

Tibbetts said government would make sure Caymanians benefited from any development with employment for local people as a priority. He also said he would be looking out to make sure the country does not bite off more than it can chew. “We are not going to make any decisions that look good today and that will do harm down the line,” he said, as he promised to talk with the public about all major project or development plans.

Talking more broadly about the government that he was now a part he said it was “early days” but he was excited by the commitment from everyone in all areas of the new government.

“We will see good results we just need a little bit of patience,” he added. “We may not have been as accessible as people would have liked but it’s been rough,” he said as he explained the new government had a lot to grapple with when it took office and it was intent on making the right decisions. He said it would not be much longer before people would see the country moving forward fairly steadily.