City Hall moving ahead with property revaluation despite Govt’s non-support

Despite Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo’s recent declaration that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government will not support any moves by the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (GM&CC) to reevaluate properties in the city with the aim of collecting more rates and taxes, Mayor and City Councillor Alfred Mentore has expressed determination to move ahead and provided reasons and clarification as to why he called for the revaluation.

The Mayor made this call on Friday during a recent press conference.
Only on Thursday, General Secretary of the PPP/C, Vice President Jagdeo’s weekly press conference, he expressed that the PPP/C would likely not want to do a revaluation of properties in Georgetown, as this would result in higher taxes for residents.
However, Mayor Alfred Mentore stated that the request for the revaluation is aimed at addressing compliance issues.
“At no time have our intentions ever been to increase rates and taxes on anyone throughout the length and breadth of this city, because if you increase the rates on those persons, you’ll be increasing it on the 55 per cent who are actually paying,” he said.
On that note, he added that many of the properties require proper solutions to resolve these issues. He claimed that many of these properties, including five, six, and 10-story buildings, are still paying the same taxes as when they first acquired the properties.

“Our intention, since that period until now, was to look at how we will be able to address the 45 per cent who are not paying. We need to find a range of measures to incentivise them to pay, put them to the test, and find solutions to ensure compliance,” he added.
“We have markets, we have other infrastructure work to do, but 45 per cent of the people have not been honouring their obligations. These are the people we want to focus on. We can’t have 55 per cent of the citizens and homeowners honouring their responsibilities, including pensioners, who represent a significant portion of the public.”
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has declared that the (PPP/C) Government will not support any moves by the (GM&CC) to reevaluate properties in the city with the aim of collecting more rates and taxes.
At the GM&CC statutory meeting on Tuesday, Georgetown Mayor Alfred Mentore had disclosed plans to request a meeting between Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh and City Hall’s Valuation Division, to discuss the revaluation of properties in Georgetown, in a bid to earn more revenues for the cash-strapped City Council.
He pointed out that if City Hall is bent on earning revenues, then it should go after the billions owed by some quarters, including the more than $6 billion in outstanding taxes for the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) Congress Place Headquarters. The leading Opposition party’s holding company, Maiwak, reportedly owes the city $6.7 billion in taxes.