One reason for the apparent sluggish start to election campaigning this year may be a shortage of available funding as a result of the depressed economy.

The statutory limits for campaign spending are currently $30,000 for each candidate that is part of a political party and $35,000 for independent candidates.

These modest limits are probably due for an overhaul in time for the 2013 elections but, in the meantime, this is what the nominated candidates are allowed to spend.

One anomaly in the law appears to be that the spending limits kick in only upon nomination, in other words, prospective candidates can spend what they like prior to being nominated.

This makes the late start to the campaign even more surprising unless, of course, no one can afford to spend up to the current limits anyway.

We have remarked in previous years that it does take money to get elected – a fact of life that seems to be frequently disregarded by many aspiring politicians here. And it is a fact that too many candidates depend on “donations” to finance their campaign instead of digging in to their own resources.

Regrettably, this lack of foresight and understanding on the part of those that would wish to lead us sometimes impacts the media directly, through the strange belief on the part of some candidates that they are entitled to advertising without having to pay for it.

In years past, on many occasions Cayman Net News has been promised payment for advertising that never arrives, and cheques that mysteriously never turn up.

Perhaps those candidates in previous years felt that they had to demonstrate beyond doubt that they were qualified to be elected by making promises they had no intention of keeping.

Suffice to say, this time around, whenever our readers see a political advertisement in the print and online editions of Cayman Net News, they can be sure that it has been paid for in advance by a candidate or political party that is willing to put their money where their mouth is.

We have suggested in these columns on previous occasions that what the Cayman Islands needs running the country is a group of astute, successful businessmen and women.

Many Caymanian entrepreneurs have become relatively wealthy as a result of their own hard work and ingenuity, and several of them served their country and constituents well in the Legislative Assembly.

Some of our more respected political leaders in years past have been successful businessmen in their own right. Captain Charles Kirkconnell is one such that immediately springs to mind.

These individuals, in the words of one of them, did not need government to live.

Unfortunately, many later politicians have failed to live up to the high standards set by Captain Charles and others and this transition on the part of elected officials seems to us stems from the time that the Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) voted themselves a very large increase in pay.

So, instead of the very modest stipend that used to be an MLA’s salary, it suddenly became an occupation to be sought for its own financial benefits and not as an unselfish exercise in service to the community.

Good businessmen and women know that it’s wise to determine how to get the best bang for the buck and one of the most basic of business practices is the cost-benefit analysis – something which is never practiced here at a government level… to the substantial detriment of the country.

In the Cayman Islands, because more of our elected politicians now need government to live, they are more focused on what will get them re-elected rather than adopt potentially unpopular policies that may be what the country needs to set it back on the right track and to weather the current economic storm.

Cost-benefit analyses, risk-reward ratios, returns on investment are all things that a business-minded government should be considering on a daily basis, instead of blundering ahead in many areas, and when expensive consultants are hired (as they too frequently are) their reports get ignored because a lot of the time they are politically inconvenient.

At this election, perhaps voters should pay more attention to the business track record of the candidates and whether they need to be in government to live.