Easy ways to earn revenue

Here’s my list: 1. Legalise marijuana: Let me start big. I’m not even going to argue for decriminalisation. Government needs to capitalise on the marijuana business. Look abroad for models because marijuana is a legal, money-making giant in many countries. Look into having medical marijuana. Have stores like I’ve seen in Seattle that sell everything from marijuana candy to marijuana drinks.

Think of legalised marijuana as the next step up from Play Whe.

Government would not only make money, it would save money. We wouldn’t be choking the courts with young people in possession of a joint. We wouldn’t be overcrowding our prison system with marijuana cases. Above all, police could do real work like solving murders and finding more guns instead of spending time on petty marijuana charges.

The time has come to legalise marijuana.

2. Fine speeding motorists: I have seen newspapers reports about motorists arrested for speeding, but I have never seen a single motorist stopped by the police. On the highways, cars whirr past me like airplanes. Where are the traffic police? Last week, on a tip to and from Caroni, I counted 109 cars breaking the speed limit to pass me. If those motorists were fined $1,000 each for breaking the law, that would be $109,000 the Government could have made in one hour.

Of course motorists will eventually get the picture and comply with the rules. When that happens we will all be safer.

3. Give hefty tickets for flagrant traffic violations: The wrecker is an inefficient way to deal with motorists. Instead, fine people for parking violations. And be consistent.

Sometimes I’m driving home in bumper-to-bumper traffic because motorists have decided to park in a traffic lane to take wedding pictures in front of President’s House. Sometimes motorists park on the Queen’s Park Savannah grounds, or the Savannah walkway.

People are too complacent about following the rules of the road. They need to learn a lesson, and apparently they need to pay to learn that lesson. These fines would go a long way to reducing the feeling of entitlement that we have in this country.

4. Beef up the Treasury with more entrepreneurial opportunities: I would like to see small, air conditioned restaurants inside the Port of Port of Spain and the Scarborough Port where people wait for hours on an inefficient ferry service. Government could be making a pile of money off these captive citizens. Why not give young people studying culinary arts or young people just interested in culinary arts a chance to have a restaurant in a strategic place like the port? Government could collect a hefty rent every month. When people are waiting two to six hours for a ferry there’s nothing really to do but eat so why not capitalise on this? 5. Cut back on government costs: Start with all the dead weight you have in the Public Service. Make people do their jobs or fire them.

And why do some ministries have more than one building? Downsize.

Save some money.

There are many ways for Government to make money. It takes a creative imagination and the determination to be consistent, but there are innovative ways to create revenue without taxing overtaxed people more. Just the thought of paying more taxes is quite taxing.