City Hall sneaked in an oppressive budget

Feb 12, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
With all the rumpus of the parking meter debacle, the Georgetown City Council was able to furtively slip by a draconian budget for 2017 with hardly anyone reacting or even noticing.
Listening to the elderly Chairman make the presentation, one can understand why the government has taken a decision to remove these prehistoric politicians from key positions of governance and send them to their rocking chairs. They are obviously not in touch with the times.
In the first place one needs to enquire why it took so many months to be discussed and formulated and then only to come up with such an uninspiring budget. There is nothing new but increased taxation for citizens to look forward to. This deficit budget and deficit budgets by local authorities should not be allowed by the Ministry of Communities. Now that the parking meters charges have to be reduced, these deficit budgets are just aimed at the Council raking in more revenue from citizens that already have their belts drawn tight. I am surprised that I have not heard a response or assessment from the Chamber of Commerce nor Private Sector Commission.
Of interest to the citizenry is whether the details of this budget will ever be made public or whether it will be kept under wraps like the last budget or worst become classified like the parking meter contract, whereby citizens will have to be supervised by a Constable to read it
Look at the burdens being implemented, the parking meter albatross, the container fees millstone, the 10 percent across-the-board increase for property taxes shackle, the increase in market fees burden and the increased fees to the barbers and hairdressers. By the way are those on Merriman’s Mall paying anything at all? Are they even licensed?
But why is City Council’s budget only about taxation, taxation, taxation? What about improving the lives of every citizen of Georgetown? Will they be building a new state of the art abattoir? Or will they continue to bludgeon the animals to death in an old insanitary facility? Will they rehabilitate all of their old, rickety buildings including City Hall, or will they keep them in the same state of disrepair,
Will they put in street lights, will they fix the roads and bridges, will they build a municipal swimming pool, will they build modern shopping centres, will they buy their own garbage trucks or will they continue to be enervated by contractors, will they rebuild some of those old rat infested markets such as Bourda and La Penitence? Will they eradicate mosquitoes in the city will they remove vagrants from off of the streets? What about the cemetery? Will they rebuild the Stabroek Market wharf? What are we paying these increased and additional taxes for? The same old, same old?
Mateo Phelephe

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