New Year, New Style, New Tax a Lick

The new tax package which the PM announced on December 23rd takes effect tomorrow morning and everyone's bracing themselves for the "wicked" and "unjust" package. Yes, more taxes suck, but probably not half as much the rest of the "bitter pill" that Jamaica and Jamaicans will have to swallow when the rest of the IMF conditions are revealed.
I think the taxes are necessary given the corner that the country has painted itself into, but I also think that the PM and his team could have, and should have, done a much better job of communicating the taxes to the country. The mishandling of the situation, coupled with the predictably populist and politically motivated reaction of the opposition, leads me to believe that nothing has changed in Jamaican politics, and that is the bitterest pill of all.