City Hall’s 2014 budget is expected to be presented on Monday by the Georgetown Mayor and City Council, but Local Government Minister Norman Whittaker has already signalled that he would not be endorsing it.
Stabroek News understands that a letter was dispatched from the Minister to City Hall indicating his feelings on the budget, which projects a deficit, although the law does not require the ministry’s approval.
“The legislation does not specifically state that City Hall must present their estimates to the Ministry, but it has been the established practice for the sake of good accountability for the budget to be sent to the ministry to be perused,” Whittaker said when contacted yesterday.
On November 18, a proposed budget of $2,055,467,116 was rejected by a majority of councillors, with 11 councillors voting against it, 4 voting for it and two abstained from voting. The council had described the budget proposal as being “unrealistic and lacking depth.”
Whittaker stated that he finds it disturbing that City Hall would want to present a budget that has a deficit. “Here is a budget that has a deficit. That means they plan to spend more than they receive.
That is very disturbing. That means we will be owing people,” Whittaker argued.
He said too that he would have liked to engage in talks with Mayor Hamilton Green to have discussions on those items that they did not support as was done previously. “I don’t know if it is out of arrogance but why would the mayor want to change a process that has been working in terms of having discussions with us. I am doing this because it is time the taxpayers get value for their money,” he stressed.
“I wish that the mayor does what we have done before to sit and discuss those items that we do not support, the amount of money involved is substantial,” he further noted.
Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green had argued that the proposed budget cannot sustain the city. “$2 billion can’t even run this city.
Right now we are at a standstill in garbage collection. The ministries’ combined forces [are] expected to start a clean-up campaign in Georgetown soon and what they have to understand is that all the money that they are pouring into Georgetown is money that we ought to be spending on Georgetown,” she said.
