The MP said he did not care whether the proposed toll was 25 or 50 cents. Residents deserve the same attention to parliamentary travel costs, transport licensing and the pressures on low-wage workers.
PHILIPSBURG:--- “I don’t even care if it’s 25 cents, if it’s 50 cents.”
That was MP Francisco Lacroes’s remark as he proposed a toll on the Simpson Bay Causeway during Monday’s debate on the draft 2027 budget. He argued that many users live on the French side while Dutch-side taxpayers bear the bridge’s cost. He offered no vehicle count, revenue projection or estimate of what collecting such a small toll would cost.
Lacroes was speaking about the possible toll amount. He did not say that he does not care about workers, transportation or parliamentary spending. But his casual phrasing opens a pointed question: why is a charge on motorists worth proposing before Parliament has examined those other costs with equal urgency?
Does he care what parliamentary travel costs?
Lacroes wants causeway users to contribute to infrastructure. Then he should show what taxpayers contribute to parliamentary travel, including Parlatino activities.
Parliament lists Lacroes on Parlatino committees and reported his participation in an overseas parliamentary workshop in Grenada. The public should be able to see the cost of each trip he took, including flights, accommodation, and per diem, together with his report on what the delegation accomplished and what Sint Maarten gained. The available notices establish participation; they do not provide a trip-by-trip accounting of his expenses or results. sxmparliament.org
The question is direct: if 25 cents matter when a resident crosses a bridge, how much does it matter when an MP crosses the Caribbean on public funds? Publish the figures and the reports, Mr. Lacroes.
Does he care how many transport licenses the industry can sustain?
Lacroes’s proposal also deserves scrutiny in light of the troubled bus and taxi licensing period at TEATT, where he served in the minister’s cabinet.
The Integrity Chamber found that the ministry’s 2023 licensing process failed to comply with the applicable framework. It identified applications handled outside official deadlines, incomplete files, the absence of a Public Transportation Committee, and a determination of license numbers based on arbitrary information. It recommended reviewing the legislative framework and clearly documenting who is responsible for licensing decisions. Its public summary does not assign those findings personally to Lacroes. Integrity Chamber
That makes his own account more important. How many licenses did he issue during his tenure? What role did he have in the process? What evidence was used to decide the number the market could sustain? What has he done as an MP to secure the regulatory changes recommended after the investigation?
He can also answer a political question plainly. Election records show his personal vote rose from 85 in 2020 to 312 in January 2024, before falling to 236 in August 2024. What does he attribute the January increase to, following his period at TEATT? Those totals do not establish that licenses influenced any vote. They do warrant a direct response to the question residents are asking. sxmelections.com
Does he care what another daily charge means to a worker?
The statutory minimum hourly wage is Cg. 10.93 in 2026. The government described its latest adjustment as a 0.65% increase based on the consumer price index. A toll may sound trivial when discussed in cents from a parliamentary seat. To someone crossing repeatedly for work, after paying for fuel, electricity, food and housing, it is one more recurring expense. sintmaartengov.org
What would a commuter pay over a year? Would the toll apply in both directions? Would workers, buses and delivery vehicles receive exemptions? Would electronic collection cost more than the proposed charge brings in? Lacroes supplied none of those answers when he raised the idea.
Does he care where the same logic leads?
Dutch-side taxis and tour buses carry paying visitors onto the French side. They use roads, parking areas and beaches maintained there. The Collectivité has already reorganized access to the Marigot waterfront taxi area and described an annual contribution connected to use of that facility. www.com-saint-martin.fr
Would Lacroes welcome an hourly charge on Sint Maarten taxis and tour buses stopping in Marigot? Would he welcome charges associated with tour groups visiting Orient Bay? If he says no because such costs would hurt drivers and tourism, he needs to explain why the same concern does not apply to people crossing the causeway.
The real test of a revenue idea is not whether its proposed price sounds small. It is whether the figures add up, whether the burden is fair and whether government has first accounted for the money it already spends.
Lacroes said he did not care whether the causeway toll was 25 or 50 cents. The public should care about every cent—and insist that Parliament count its own travel costs, explain its transport-licensing record, and measure the effect on working people before it proposes another fee.
