The 2026 budget allocations to Trinidad and Tobago's 14 municipal corporations follow a pattern that requires no statistical analysis to identify. Every PNM-controlled corporation received decreased funding. Every UNC-controlled corporation received increases.
Port of Spain City Corporation's development programme funding was cut by 79%. Point Fortin's drainage budget fell from $5 million to $300,000. Its roads budget fell from $5 million to $200,000. Chaguanas Borough Corporation, controlled by the UNC, received a 122.5% increase.
The Prime Minister's response to complaints from PNM-controlled areas was to say they "should stop suskaying" - a Trinbagonian expression meaning to stop sulking or whining.
What the Numbers Show
Municipal corporations deliver the services that affect daily life most directly: garbage collection, road maintenance, drain clearing, street lighting, market maintenance. These are not abstract budget lines. They determine whether your street floods, whether your garbage is collected, and whether the road to your house has potholes or pavement.
A 79% cut to Port of Spain's development programme does not mean 79% less ambition. It means 79% less road repair, drain maintenance, and public space upkeep in the capital city. A drainage budget that drops from $5 million to $300,000 in Point Fortin does not mean Point Fortin will experience 94% less flooding. It means the municipality has 94% less money to prevent it.
The Missing Formula
Budget allocations to municipal corporations could, in principle, be based on a transparent formula - population, land area, infrastructure age, maintenance backlog, development needs. If such a formula exists, it has not been published. If it does not exist, the allocations are discretionary - which is another way of saying political.
The Details of Estimates of Recurrent Expenditure, the budget document that contains the line-by-line figures, is public. Any Trinbagonian can compare the numbers across corporations and across years. The pattern is not hidden. It is simply not discussed in terms of what it means for service delivery on the ground.
What It Looks Like on the Ground
The budget numbers translate into physical conditions. When a PNM-controlled municipality has its drainage budget cut from $5 million to $300,000, the drains that were being maintained stop being maintained. When the rainy season comes, the flooding that was being managed reverts to the flooding that was not being managed.
Garbage collection schedules that were being maintained at one frequency will be maintained at a lower frequency, or not at all. Road repairs that were scheduled will be deferred. The residents of those areas did not change. Their infrastructure needs did not decrease. The only thing that changed was the political alignment of their municipal council relative to the national government.
The Precedent Problem
Partisan municipal funding is not new in Trinidad and Tobago. Both the PNM and the UNC have been accused of it when in power. What is notable about the 2026 allocations is the scale and the transparency of the pattern. A 79% cut to the capital city's development budget is not subtle. A 122% increase to the governing party's base is not subtle.
If the Office of Procurement Regulation is auditing spending in the suddenly well-funded UNC corporations to ensure the increased allocations are being spent appropriately, it has not said so. If the government has published the criteria used to determine the allocation pattern, it has not been found in public reporting.
The PM's instruction to PNM areas to "stop suskaying" is a political response, not a policy justification. The residents of Port of Spain, Point Fortin, and other affected areas are not suskaying. They are experiencing measurably reduced public services because their elected municipal representatives belong to the wrong party.
This is governance by loyalty, not by need. And the people paying the price are the ones whose drains will not be cleared and whose roads will not be repaired.