Chairman of the Linden IMC, Orrin Gordon, says the municipality continues to be challenged to meet its mandate as many property owners flout their obligations to pay rates and taxes and new properties in Amelia’s Ward are being evaluated below current market prices.
Although over 60% of rates and taxes for 2012 were collected and the municipality expects a 15- 20% increase this year, these sums are insufficient to meet service obligations within the town.
This situation is compounded by the low rates being applied to the tax, particularly for new properties in the expanding Amelia’s Ward community which are being undervalued, Gordon said.
“We’ve had recently, the people from the valuation division of the Ministry of Finance coming to do inspection and they have made an imposition that the new properties at Amelia’s Ward and other areas will come on the tax roll. But they are valued at the 1976 tax level. So, for example, a structure such as the Mayor and Town Council building would attract a value of $11,000 per year,” he explained.
Gordon pointed out that an area such as Central Amelia’s Ward has some of the most sophisticated properties in Linden but the rates and taxes there are not more than $3,500. Referring to the valuation as a joke, the IMC Chairman said, “The government had rebased its GDP calculation to 2006 level only recently. So, how now, you’re still calculating at 1976?”
Stating that the municipality has to clear 15 bee nests in the Christianburg Cemetery and would have to pay about $12,000 to $15,000 to clear one nest, Gordon said, “So, tell me how many properties do we have to collect from at a thousand dollars per year to clear these nests alone?”
“We still have to pick up garbage. We still have to patch the roads,” he added.
In order to persuade property owners to pay up, Gordon said the municipality has two avenues of recourse it can use to obtain outstanding dues, “One, you can take away the man’s movable property; the next one, you can take away the movable property.” He, however, noted that because the country does not have a court system that deals specifically with municipal litigation such matters would usually take years to be processed in the civil courts. So, according to him, litigation is a disincentive.
The Fiscal Transfers Bill recently passed in parliament is intended to enable municipalities and neighbourhood democratic councils to improve their revenue base.
