As the Chairman of the Mayor and City Council’s Finance Committee proceeded to present the budget for 2012 yesterday to the public, a note was forwarded from Mayor Hamilton Green, indicating that he was not consulted as to the time of the event and as a result, would be unable to attend.
This message came as councillors and representatives from various organizations gathered and had began preparing for the meeting’s commencement. As a result, Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green chaired the meeting and presented brief remarks.
She indicated that it was known since 1994 that even with full collection of taxes, citizens of Georgetown could not be provided with satisfactory services but that the current budget caters for a notational balance.
However, she pointed out that the five municipal markets, the abattoir, day care centres, health facilities, vehicles and buildings such as the City Hall Constabulary Training School are all in a deplorable state and the $1.94 billion budget does not cater for these repairs.
She identified the council’s responsibilities as: 160 square miles of roads, the maintenance of an abattoir, bridges, a cemetery, over 300 miles of concrete and earth drains, 11 outfall channels or sluices to the Demerara River, collection and disposal of waste and garbage, parapets, street lighting, public parks and open spaces, public sanitary conveniences, five municipal markets, food hygiene, policing and security of certain areas in the city, maternal and child health, daycare centres, the building code, road repair and maintenance, collection of rates and taxes and control of animals.
To execute all in its mandate, Chase-Green said the city will need more money than what is currently collected, an estimated $4 billion to be precise. “That is, if we are to provide the three Ms – money, machinery and manpower,” she explained.
With regard to drainage during heavy rainfall, she reiterated that the Georgetown is below sea level and whether or not the outfall channels are desilted on a regular basis and the bar at the Demerara River is kept free and all kokers are functioning, there will be an accumulation of water once there is excessive rainfall.
She informed that the constabulary is currently short of 149 personnel which makes it unable to function at a satisfactory level.
In addition to this, she said that after recent inspections of the toilet facilities at City Hall, she was embarrassed and ashamed to discover that constables are forced to work under such primitive conditions.
“We once again appeal for the cooperation of citizens and the business community to come on board in a collaborative effort in this new dispensation, which the Mayor will discuss in detail later. In the meantime, citizens must avoid dumping and we urge the business community not to discriminately misuse the city…,” Chase-Green said in her closing remarks.
Before presenting the budget for the third time, Garrett stated that previous budgets were known to be $3 billion to $4 billion but assured the public that the current one has been tailored to achieve what is certain.
“Those budgets did not respect the income that the council was receiving and as such, they were fooling the citizens of Georgetown… We know that over the years, we have not been providing all of the services that we need because we have not been getting the amount of income that is necessary,” he said.
He further dubbed this year’s budget as the “citizens’ budget” because after 11 years, rates and taxes will not be increased although there has been a constant increase in day-to-day services.
However, Garrett explained that in order to avoid the increase of rates and taxes, the council is seeking compensatory measures from the government. In addition to this, it is also requesting that the government take responsibility for street lighting.
“Our largest liability is streetlights and that is to the amount of $825 million. Street lighting is a national security issue and the government should be responsible,” he said.
The Finance Chairman is also hoping that rates and taxes collection can be increased, to earn an additional $70 million for the city. To do this, an effort has been made to approach two contractors to conduct evaluations on buildings around the city.
“Where we had houses, we now have business places. Where we had two-storey buildings, it is now three stories. Those contractors are presently in the fields and we expect that the results of that exercise will take effect in June,” Garrett said.
