Premier Andre Ebanks has tabled a CI$2.5 billion budget for 2026-2027, which he said reflects both “heart and mind”, before the Parliament of the Cayman Islands.
Speaking during a sitting on Thursday, 6 November, Ebanks said the government spending plan represents “a transformative blueprint for a stronger, fairer Cayman”.
“Over the past weeks, as government and public servants collaborated to prepare this budget, we returned again and again to a central conviction,” he said.
“The cost of delay is too great and the challenges before us are too urgent for us to approach this process with anything less than integrity and responsibility.”
He said the new budget was “born of necessity, shaped by vision and grounded in reality – because the status quo is no longer an option”.
While Cayman recorded strong economic growth from 2009 to 2025, the territory was “hyper-focused on balance sheets and bank accounts”, he said.
The leader of the National Coalition for Change (NCFC) administration said the former government had neglected building wealth in grassroots communities.
“The uncomfortable reality is this: we have done relatively little to improve life for average Caymanians,” he said, adding that the population is struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.
Ebanks asked the public to pay keen attention to three key areas of the budget revenue projections, expenditure framework, and fiscal responsibility indicators.
Revenue and expenditure
The budget includes new revenue measures projected to generate $172.4 million in additional operating revenues over two years – $72.5 million in 2026 and $99.9 million in 2027.
Ebanks said new fees will target financial services including legal and accountancy practitioner fees, fund annual return filing fees, exempted limited partnership and Class A bank licence fees.
Domestic revenue increases include stamp duty on high-end land transfers, immigration fees and various trade and business licence fees, particularly special economic zone trade certificates and local company control licence fees.
The premier went on to say that education and health receive the largest allocations in the budget because “they are the foundation of everything else we hope to achieve”.
Education receives the largest allocation at 17% of the 2026 budget, more than $250 million including capital spending, Ebanks said.
Meanwhile health, environment and sustainability accounts for 13%, almost $193 million including capital allocations.
Specific initiatives include doubling workforce development funding from $1.4 million to $3.07 million by 2027, adding $4 million for primary education including nursery and reception classes at some schools, and increasing disability programme funding from $1.7 million to $3.16 million.
The budget also allocates $1.5 million annually for afterschool programmes targeting at-risk students and increases financial assistance to families from $18.2 million in 2025 to $23.4 million in 2027.
Addressing the housing crisis, the budget increases funding for affordable housing administration from $450,000 to $680,000 annually and boosts the build-on-your-own-property programme from $20,000 to $340,000.
Ebanks said the government commits to providing quarterly public reports on financial and performance outcomes, with oversight by parliament, civil society and independent auditors.
The premier called on legislators, public servants, the business community and all Caymanians to support the transformation, saying the budget represents the end of “kicking problems down the road”.
