In light of the recent claims that City Hall is bankrupt, the Mayor, Patricia Chase Green on Tuesday confirmed that the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has indeed run short on funds.
Mayor Patricia Chase Green
In a telephone interview with this newspaper, Chase Green said that for the M&CC to be able to run the city efficiently and cater for all the modern developments, it would require approximately $3 billion annually. Chase Green said that since many persons do not pay their taxes on time and the M&CC does not collect enough funds, deficits are encountered annually.
“There has not been a time that the Council has not had a loss. The city has always been broke. The Council does not collect enough rates and taxes to meet all the demands financially to run this city and so being short of cash is no new news. We’ve always been. It would take like $3 billion a year to run the city of Georgetown if you want to develop it into a modern city. And when taxpayers don’t pay their monies on time, we will have shortages in payment, but the city has always been short of money,” the Mayor said.
With regard to when payments would be provided to the city workers, including garbage collectors and contractors, the Public Relations Officer of the M&CC, Debra Lewis indicated that “preparations are being made to ensure those workers are paid as soon as possible”.
Additionally, the Mayor relayed that all indebtedness would be discussed by the financial committee and the matter was hoped to be resolved soon.
Last week, it was highlighted that City Hall was short on funds and was unable to pay staff their Independence month’s wages. The Council, however, indicated that the matter was expected to be resolved in 48 hours, highlighting the need for taxpayers to pay all outstanding dues as soon as possible.
It was related by the M&CC that the monies were exhausted in sanitising areas in and out of the city and rehabilitating focal buildings in Georgetown.
According to the Council, at this time, the continued provision of important services such as lighting, municipal markets and abattoirs, drains, bridges, garbage collection and disposal, are still being honoured with its limited funds, which were causing the hindrance in keeping employee payments up to date.
