- Georgetown may pass $2B mark
Six municipalities presented their 2009 budget proposals to the Local Government Minis-try yesterday at a meeting held at the Red House.
Georgetown, which is still in the process of completing its budget, presented a part of its proposal, which already exceeds the billion dollar mark, while five townships submitted preliminary budgets to the tune of several million.

Kellawan Lall

The budget was presented by the acting Town Clerk Yonnette Pluck, who said that the municipality is determined to restore Georgetown to its status as the “Garden City.”  Pluck stated that the City Council will be moving towards the rehabilitation of certain parts of the city, including cleaning and improving street lighting. Pluck told Stabroek News that the final budget may amount to $2.3 billion.

The Linden Municipality made a proposal to the tune of $120,455,065, which represents a decrease of $4,446,275 from its 2008 budget. New Amsterdam’s proposal was $127,076,823; Corriverton’s was $73,361,35l; Rose Hall’s was $42,927,406, a decrease from 2008; and Anna Regina’s was $62,601,882.
In the partial Georgetown budget, a sum of $400 million has been proposed towards the installing and rehabilitation of street lights in the city, while $56 million has been dedicated towards the rehabilitation of the markets.

The allocation of funds towards the maintenance of markets would have undoubtedly pleased Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Kellawan Lall, who had earlier called on the municipalities to maintain the markets under their oversight. He said, the “markets are in terrible shape” and their appearances needed to be improved.

Emphasising the need for the markets to be operated properly, Lall said that in the various markets there is the daily buying and selling of stalls, which occur in direct disregard of contractual obligations. He explained that the sale of the market stalls has to be done in accordance with certain specified criteria and he called for the municipal authorities to ensure compliance.

Lall also urged the various representatives of the municipalities to be aggressive in their attempts to collect rates and taxes from the property owners. He said every year the town councils only collect about 50% of what is owed to them. During the presentations, the representatives from all the towns all admitted to difficulties in acquiring rates and taxes owed to them.

The minister said that people have to pay rates and taxes whether they receive all the services or not. He said the law does not say that they have to pay rates and taxes only if they receive services. And he pointed out that if people did not pay these taxes, they would not be able to get the services that they desire.
The proposed budgets are to undergo the scrutiny of the ministry and will be approved at a later date.