The Linden Mayor & City Council (M&CC) is in dire straits with over $270 million in debts, making it unable to pay NIS contributions, wages, utility bills and to perform services for the mining town.
Linden’s Deputy Mayor Wainwright Bethune, in an interview with Stabroek News on Monday, blamed the Council’s financial woes on old rates and taxes formula and the Municipality’s inability to raise same without government’s help.
According to Bethune, the formula for the current rates and taxes, which is the major source of revenue, is based on a 1976 model. He argued that it was impossible to meet the Municipal’s expenses in 2022 with a rate that was set in 1976. He said that if all of the current rates and taxes is collected it would amount to some 19 million dollars, which will only take care of 20% of garbage collection and disposal alone and does not include servicing of dump sites. Bethune disclosed that residents are paying only G$1200 a year in rates and taxes and even at this rate, only an average of 60% are paying.
“How can we provide the residents with street lights, clean drains etcetera and do all Municipal works, if your major source of revenue is only 20% of garbage and disposal expenses alone,” he asked.
He is advocating changes to allow the Council to raise and institute rates and taxes that’s relevant to 2022, without having to wait on government to re-evaluate residential and commercial properties. Bethune said that several requests for a re-evaluation of properties and a bailout seems to have fallen on deaf ears. “I have been here since 2016, requests were made for the re-evaluation and for a bailout, but nobody seems to budge,” a frustrated Bethune said.
He said that the Council gets a G$19 million subvention from government, but this goes towards capital works only.
Bethune disclosed that Municipal workers were being paid below minimum wage, and the Council was unable to make National Insurance Scheme contributions for its workers. “If a Council worker who has been here for 20 or 30 years should leave the job now, we would not be able to pay them any gratuity, noted the Deputy Mayor.
He opined that the current form of governance of the municipality cannot work. “This is the problem I am having with the Local Government Commission and the government. The revenue collected are a fraction of my operational costs. How can I pay wages, collect garbage and do other municipal works?” asked Bethune.
The Deputy Mayor said the conversation must take place at the level of Parliament for an independent framework to give the Municipal leverage to function at some level of independence to better serve the people of Linden.
Bethune said that he is hoping that something would be done soon about the situation in Linden.
