GREAT BAY, St. Maarten – Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams has tabled three motions aimed at strengthening community development, encouraging greater private support for causes of national importance and introducing a community-based approach to tackling littering and illegal dumping.
During the 2026 budget debate, Wescot-Williams said the proposals are intended to move several initiatives from discussion toward implementation, with communities themselves playing a larger role in identifying priorities and contributing to solutions.
Her first motion concerns the Community Driven District Development Fund, an initiative previously supported by Parliament. Wescot-Williams explained that the concept is to identify communities and work directly with residents to determine the projects and improvements most needed within their districts.
She said Parliament had already agreed to the broader proposal and suggested that the complete plan be shared with the relevant ministers. Part of the original concept envisioned Parliament working with the St. Maarten Development Fund, SMDF, to establish the structure necessary to administer the initiative.
Wescot-Williams said the intention had been to begin with one or two pilot communities in 2026, but that this is no longer realistic given where the country is in the financial year.
Her motion therefore calls for Cg 500,000 to be included in the 2027 budget so that funding can become available once the necessary structure is established and the initiative is ready to move forward in selected communities.
The MP said the district development approach would allow communities to have a direct role in identifying projects that can improve their surroundings rather than relying entirely on centrally determined government initiatives.
Her second motion focuses on tax incentives for businesses and individuals who contribute financially or materially to organizations and initiatives serving what government recognizes as causes of national importance.
Wescot-Williams is asking government to review the existing provisions governing charitable deductions under the Income Tax Ordinance and Profit Tax Ordinance and examine whether St. Maarten’s tax framework can be modernized to encourage more community giving.
She said government should examine international best practices involving tax incentives for charitable and community contributions and assess the fiscal implications of introducing such a system locally, including appropriate minimum thresholds and mechanisms to manage the additional administrative requirements.
The motion also calls for consultation with the non-profit sector, educational institutions, the business community and the Tax Administration before a new framework is developed.
Wescot-Williams wants the resulting system to recognize contributions to qualifying organizations and activities, including educational institutions and classroom support programs, youth development organizations, sports associations, cultural and heritage organizations, environmental and conservation initiatives, and health and social care organizations.
She said residents and businesses already contribute significant amounts to community causes, but St. Maarten’s present tax system does little to encourage or recognize those contributions.
Wescot-Williams referred specifically to the beginning of the school year, when teachers reached out to the community for assistance with materials needed to improve classroom environments. She said whether an individual or business contributes Cg 100 or Cg 10,000 toward such a recognized cause, government should explore how that contribution could be reflected when the donor’s taxes are calculated.
She described the current tax system as insufficiently supportive of charitable giving, pointing to procedures and thresholds that can make it difficult for contributions to receive meaningful tax recognition.
Her third motion focuses on littering and illegal dumping through what she described as a citizen litter reporting and neighborhood reinvestment pilot program.
Wescot-Williams is asking the VROMI Minister to endorse, in principle, an approach under which residents would become more directly involved in identifying violations of the country’s littering and dumping laws, while communities could also benefit when enforcement results in fines.
She described the proposal as an innovative and fiscally responsible way to strengthen enforcement while encouraging residents to take greater ownership of the condition of their neighborhoods.
Under the concept, citizens who identify and properly report persons violating littering or illegal dumping laws could contribute directly to enforcement. Wescot-Williams said the broader idea is that money collected through enforcement could be reinvested into the community where the offence occurred.
“If you’re caught, you’re going to pay a fine, and that fine going to the community in which you were caught,” Wescot-Williams explained while describing the concept.
She acknowledged that aspects of the proposal may require further legal examination, but urged government to meet with the citizens behind the idea and determine what can practically and lawfully be implemented.
Wescot-Williams also referred to the anti-littering motion tabled by MP Sjamira Roseburg during the same budget debate and urged government and Parliament to bring the various proposals together rather than treating them as competing approaches.
“Let’s bring all of this together,” she said, calling for concrete steps and more creative approaches to improving the cleanliness of St. Maarten.
The MP said the need for stronger action is visible across the country. She pointed to garbage left behind even after community clean-up efforts and referred specifically to Mullet Bay, where she said she encountered an empty Hennessy bottle deliberately placed in a tree despite garbage receptacles being available.
For Wescot-Williams, such behavior demonstrates that St. Maarten’s cleanliness problem cannot be addressed solely through periodic clean-ups. She argued that stronger enforcement, community responsibility and incentives for neighborhoods to participate in maintaining their surroundings must form part of the solution.
