Dear Editor,
I read with amusement and some disgust the apparent surprise and disappointment of the Town Clerk with regard to his claim that large businesses in Georgetown owe the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) over $4 billion in rates and taxes. He of all persons should know that it is property rates and not rates and taxes that the Council collects.
Clearly, he has never heard of tax resistance, which in this case is the refusal to pay property rates because of a lack of confidence by these citizens in the Council’s ability to properly collect, secure, account for, and spend prudently these monies. Tax resisters are distinct from “tax protesters,” who deny that the legal obligation to pay taxes exists or applies to them. Tax resisters accept that some law commands them to pay taxes, but they still choose to resist taxation for a variety of reasons. He should be aware that tax resistance played a significant role in the collapse of several empires, including the Egyptian, Roman, Spanish, and Aztec.
With the Council not having its financial records audited in decades; with non-adherence to tender board and established procurement procedures; with poor fiscal planning and management; with constant overspending and sloppy recordkeeping, do they really expect these business persons to rush in and hand over 4 billion dollars to them just like that? Everyone knows that even if the business persons were to do so, two weeks later, the Council would be broke again.
Quite disingenuously, he points to the issue that a valuation procedure has not been effected in two decades, with the aim of persuading persons to share his view that property owners are underpaying property rates. He does not allude to the fact that, in 2017, the municipality hiked property rates by 10 percent and implemented a steep rise of 750 percent in compliance fees, from 0.1 percent to 0.75 percent. It was misleading for him to say that citizens pay a commercial property rate of 250 per cent of the value of their properties, and a domestic rate of 40 percent of their properties, when in fact he knows that they pay 275 percent and 44 percent respectively,
The reason the Council is cash-strapped is not due only to the large amount of debt it is owed allegedly by large businesses, but also because of wanton, excessive and reckless expenditure it embarks on. But worse than that, he then suggests that this is the reason that the Council has failed to preserve and restore City Hall which is currently in a deplorable state; which is absolute poppycock!
How is it that the Council can afford to pay a wage bill of well over 100 million dollars each month to their fat cats, several hundreds of million to contractors each month without a tender procedure, millions in overseas travel etc; but cannot afford to even spend one million per month in maintenance of City Hall.
I am convinced that the Georgetown City Council does not have a money problem. They instead have a values and priorities problem.
Best regards,
Deodarie Putulall