00:02Welcome back to the TV6 News. Disappointed? That's THA Chief Secretary Farley-Augustin's
00:07reaction to Tobago's allocation for fiscal 2027. The THA had requested $4.12 billion.
00:15However, it has been allocated $2.756 billion plus an additional $716 million for various
00:24ministries and projects. According to the finance minister, this brings Tobago's total allocation
00:30to just over 5.4 percent of the national budget. I will be lying, which is something I don't do,
00:39if I tell you that I am completely satisfied with Tobago House of Assembly's allocation
00:47in this fiscal year. We are going to be receiving 4.35 percent of the total budget expenditure,
01:01and that is to Tobago. That means that there is a fall-off of approximately $412 million
01:10over the last year. You may recall last fiscal, we got for the very first time 5 percent of the
01:18national budget, and we were elated, we were excited. We thought that we had finally turned
01:26the corner. The omission of constitutional reform is of particular concern to Mr. Agustin.
01:33I have consistently asked for a fair share. I don't think this represents a fair share.
01:41Fair share, in my mind, requires ultimately two things. It requires that there be constitutional
01:48change, which will concretize as an algorithm to use digital terms, a new age digital terms,
01:57and a specific algorithm for how we are allocated financing. So it is, it doesn't vary based on
02:07feelings, but it is consistent.
