PHILIPSBURG – The Finance Committee of Parliament will meet in a closed door session on June 29^th.      

The closed door Finance Committee meeting is set for Wednesday at 9.30 am in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelminastraat #1 in Philipsburg.

The agenda point is discussion with the CFT concerning the financial situation of Sint Maarten.

PHILIPSBURG—In preparation for the second lecture in the series: “The Law Matters To You” Civil Law Notary Mrs. Meredith M. Boekhoudt LL.M has been chosen by the Department of Communication (DCOMM) and University of St. Martin (USM) as the Keynote speaker.

The lectures in the series: “The Law Matters to You” are educational in nature and aimed at providing awareness of the law and legal information to the public of St. Maarten.

Meredith M. Boekhoudt LL.M. has been a civil law notary on Sint Maarten since 2006. At the time of her appointment as civil law notary, she had worked as a candidate-notary on Sint Maarten and before that in the Netherlands, each time for a period of four years.

As civil law notary, and previously as candidate-notary, she has assisted many persons with the drafting and execution of their last wills and testaments, and in general with any matters of estate planning.

Notary Meredith M. Boekhoudt holds a Master’s Degree in notarial law from the Leiden University in the Netherlands. She additionally obtained her certificate “professional education” provided by the “Stichting Beroepsopleiding Notariaat” in the Netherlands, and has followed several courses on the topic of family law with the emphasize on inheritance law. Only a few weeks ago she attended a four day course on the New Inheritance Law given by Prof. Dr. G. van der Burght.

She believes that providing information to the public by means of presentations on the topic of inheritance, and family law in general is very important, and she has therefore given different presentations over the years upon requests from amongst others service clubs, churches, and other associations.

Notary Meredith M. Boekhoudt is honored to have been chosen to be part of the lecture series “The Law Matters to You” on July 5, 2016. She will be speaking on the topic of wills, estate planning, and family law in general at the University of St. Martin in Room: 202 at 7:00 pm sharp.

PHILIPSBURG – Independent Member of Parliament (MP) Maurice Lake told the House of Parliament on Thursday that proper planning is needed to avoid disasters, and that a plan to process permits more efficiently is also needed.

 
“My main concern is that the Ministry of VROMI needs to review the Hillsides Policy. The Hillsides Policy is outdated, 20 years old. Within those 20 years a lot has changed on St. Maarten.  
 
“The Ministry for example, should review the clause that states that you can only build a certain percentage on a specific amount of square meters of land.  St. Maarten does not have an abundance of land, and we need to look at being realistic.

“We have to look at our situation and adapt accordingly, of course still taking into consideration the environment and the basis for the hillsides policy. By changing this policy and by being more realistic with the building code restrictions we could better serve the average St. Maartener and land owners. 

“Based thereon more government residential land could be given to empower the local St. Maartener's dream of fulfilling the construction of their own family home.  Presently, we zoned out some of the most buildable areas in our current hillside policy, and that should not be the intention of the Ministry.  
 
“I agree you can't build in the trenches, guts, which you can't build on top of certain hills and that you need an excavation permit, but we have to be realistic and look at our own situation and work with that, but at the same time taking the surrounding into consideration. 

“Government needs to assign certain land for agriculture purposes. We need to better assist our local farmers with applying for government land for agriculture purposes. The process is too long and frustrated and we need to pay attention to this.
 
“Right now, St. Maarten has to keep up with tourism trends where eco-tourism plays a very important role.  We should give land owners the opportunity to develop an eco-tourism park under certain conditions. There must be a sustainable balance which I can agree with.
 
“Another concern of mine is that the Ministry of VROMI needs to review the residential erfpacht canon which, in many cases, is too high for the average local person.  We need to live up to the purpose it was established for, which is to give out land to empower the local person, who otherwise would not be able to afford to buy private land, to build their home.  St. Maarteners pride is in their home. That’s why I would bring a request to Parliament to abolish the Property Tax law.

“In closing, the Ministry of VROMI needs to look into the billing and payments of the erfpacht canon. This needs to be improved and one person within the Ministry should be assigned to send out invoices, because we have a lot of money out there for e.g. water rights which Government is still not collecting in the lagoon and other areas.  The lagoon has to be regulated because it is getting smaller and smaller without enforcing the proper controls.

“Madame Chairlady through you to the Minister, I would like to advise him to sit with the Minister of Finance and also come up with a better payment plan for civil servants who owe outstanding long lease canon. I do believe they got to pay on time so they don't end up in these situations but you can't send a bill for them for four years outstanding and take it out of their salary at once, from which they already have their monthly payments to make. Communication is key between the Ministry of VROMI, Finance and the Receiver's Office. Madame Chair, I hereby conclude my statement regarding this session of the House. Enough said.”