PNM mayors hit back at PM over municipal funding

Akash Sama­roo

Two Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) may­ors are push­ing back at Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar af­ter she ac­cused Op­po­si­tion-con­trolled mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions of “mak­ing fools of them­selves” by com­plain­ing about bud­get cuts, de­spite re­ceiv­ing $490 mil­lion more than their Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) coun­ter­parts.

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Diego Mar­tin May­or Ake­li­ah Glas­gow-Warn­er and Port-of-Spain May­or Chin­ua Al­leyne said the Prime Min­is­ter was mis­lead­ing the pub­lic by fo­cus­ing on re­cur­rent ex­pen­di­ture, which cov­ers salaries, wages and op­er­at­ing costs, while over­look­ing sig­nif­i­cant re­duc­tions in de­vel­op­ment fund­ing for roads, drains and com­mu­ni­ty in­fra­struc­ture.