At least twice a year for the past four years or so the forever broke capital city Georgetown finds itself in crisis. It is unable to pay its employees and contractors resulting in the downing of tools on the part of the workers; the withdrawal of services by the contractors; the piling up of refuse; the multiplication of vermin and the increased potential for the spread of disease.
Whenever this happens, the suffering of city dwellers also increases and those who pay their taxes suffer equally with those who do not. Of course, the services provided by the city council are extremely limited to begin with, so conscientious taxpayers, who are already paying for themselves and others must dig deeper into their pockets to find the means to pay people to weed their parapets, desilt their drains and clear the alleyways near their homes in order to keep their surroundings clean.
How is it that the city is so often in crisis? Well anyone who can add two and two can discern that Georgetown’s books have not been in the black for several years. It is obvious that the persons in charge of finance at City Hall would have also been able to make a good living if they were attached to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey’s Circus, so adept are they at juggling while walking a thin line. Beneath the tightrope stands the central government with its safety net which it puts out and removes at will, to keep the jugglers teetering.
Reputed to owe the city millions in taxes payable for its various ministries and agencies, the government is the example many ratepayers seem to follow. It seemingly grudgingly doles out a cheque now and then, usually after the garbage has already hit the fan and is being blown in all directions. And it does this with as much fanfare as possible in order to highlight the incompetence of city officials, unaware that it is a totally unnecessary exercise as everyone already knows this.
The city continues to draw up budgets for spending for which the financial means do not exist and to blame the government for shooting down every revenue-earning scheme it has conceptualized and keeping rates and taxes stagnant. Meanwhile, central government accuses the council of mismanaging its finances. Caught in the middle of this political football game is a city which has lost its aesthetic appeal and any environmental value it once had.
The fact is that Georgetown began to lose its way years ago when it became unable to maintain and/or replace its fleet of garbage collection trucks and had to take a decision to outsource this service. In addition, it could no longer afford to keep its staff complement and had to cease providing many of the services it had in the past.
Some citizens quickly caught on and were forced to begin maintaining their own surroundings – while still paying the same amount of taxes. Others refused to do so and yet others decided to stop paying for services they do not receive.
There has to be some way to fix this in order to save this city. But unfortunately, those who can do it care more about scoring political points than restoring Georgetown’s beauty, and could not care less about the threat being posed to public health or to the environment. If they did, this chapter would have been closed a long time ago.
Residents who want permanent relief should consider moving out of the city as even local government elections, whenever they are eventually held, may not guarantee this.
