A level playing field

May 29, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The Georgetown City Council is in a bind. It is in a financial crunch and it needs revenue to sustain its operations. Reports in the media suggest that millions are owed to garbage collectors and to security firms for services to the markets.

The money is not there as yet, and therefore we are learning about threats to seize property of those who owe millions. This threat indicates that City Council is hoping that ratepayers will come to its rescue by paying.
Central government, both under the PPP and now APNU+AFC, could always be relied upon to come to the rescue of City Hall. This can be expected again, because the most celebrated achievement of the APNU+AFC government was the clean-up of the city.
Ironically, it was not Central Government that actually did the work. It was the same Council which for twenty years had lorded over an unclean city, but which had constantly used the previous administration as its whipping horse, by firstly claiming that it was that administration which had denied it new sources of revenues and which had later, so it was alleged, imposed a Town Clerk on it.
There was no explanation as to why the same sources of revenue had in colonial Guyana been able to create a Garden City, or had prevented the city from being kept clean under Town Clerks who were not politically imposed on the Council.
A new government came in and there was new energy at City Hall. It was a magical transformation at City Hall that forced the question; why could this transformation not have happened for over the last twenty years?
The holding of local government elections was the worst thing that could have happened at City Hall. The Council is now totally dominated by one political grouping, APNU+AFC. There is therefore no impediment to the new City fathers and mothers coming under the influence of central government, which is controlled by the same political grouping.
Central government will come to the financial rescue of City Hall. It always has. But this will not solve the financial problems of City Hall. It will only provide short-term relief. It is believed that only about one-third of the rates and taxes owed by homeowners have been paid. But defaulting homeowners are not going to be subject to increased rates and taxes, even though the amount that they pay today cannot provide the basic sanitation services provided to them by the City.
It is the overtaxed business community and the governments which subsidize the services provided to the public by City Hall. In other words, it is those who pay their taxes who bear the burden. Yet for twenty years, City Hall did not try to assure the business community that a level playing field will be created.
Vending was allowed to extend. The markets became ghost towns. People were allowed to vend at the sides of the roadways and on the pavements, without attracting rates and taxes that are paid by legitimate businesses. The goose that laid the golden egg was being starved.
Yet we are now told that those who owe the council millions could have their properties seized. The only entities that owe millions are businesses, the very community which with the government has kept City Hall on life-support for twenty years.
City Hall has enough sources of revenue to generate a profit. The revenues from businesses, central government and markets could be quite sizeable if a level playing field is created. City Hall should be encouraging people to pay their rates and taxes.  But it cannot do this unless it commits itself to a level playing field.
Legitimate businesses are being frustrated, because they have to pay high levels of rates and taxes, they have to pay their staff, and they have overheads including very high rentals and loan repayments. But businesses are facing unfair competition from vendors.
The stallholders in the market are losing money, because consumers are not going into the market, since stalls are being been allowed to prop up outside of the perimeters of the market. There is a market outside of the market.
The ‘greens’ section of the market used to attract a high volume of consumer sales. No one goes there anymore, because the vendors are allowed to sell at the side of the street. Some places even have “drive-through markets” while those with stalls in the markets and in the ‘greens’ section are left to punish, despite paying rentals.
Threatening to seize property is not the answer to the financial crisis at City Hall. What is needed is a level playing field. It is the business community which, through the payment of their taxes, will ensure sustainable revenues for City Hall, not vendors.
The business community is bearing a disproportionate burden of the taxes collected by City Hall and is not enjoying a level playing field. The business community needs to be encouraged to pay up, not through threats, but by ensuring that they that level playing field.

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