Budget may have surprises for some, says Bob Richards

A small contingent of media gathered at The House of Assembly this morning in anticipation of Finance Minister Bob Richards on Budget day.

The Minister arrived promptly at 9:30am and posed for the cameras in the unusually warm February morning.

The Bermuda Sun enquired whether we could expect and big surprises in this year’s budget to which he gave a little smile and said: “It might be a surprise to some people but I’m not going to give you any more clues you’ll just have to wait.”

Asked whether we could expect any major cuts he simply said: “We’ll wait and see.”

He walked up the stairs to the House, posed at the main entrance for a few more pictures and disappeared inside.

While he was holding his cards close to his chest, the buzz on the ground was that one of the major announcements would relate to mutialization — whereby a joint stock company forms a mutual organization or cooperative so employees or customers own a majority of the shares.