– eyes re-valuation of properties to increase revenue base?City Hall yesterday unveiled a $2.1billion budget which, according to Deputy Mayor Robert Williams, will aid the municipality’s ability to deliver the services necessary to maintain the City of Georgetown until the end of the year.Deputy Mayor Robert Williams presents the budget before a gathering of municipal officialsThe municipality is expected to secure a total of $1.6 billion through the collection of property taxes, $241M from market fees, $73M from the Engineer’s Department, $52M from Public Health, and $25M from Solid Waste Departments.The value of the budget, Williams said, was decided upon following a process of consultations and considerations, one of the most important being that there has been no increase in the percentage assessment of property taxes since 1998.He said that property owners ought to recognise that the taxes paid in 1998, based on the size of property then, cannot be applicable now. Williams said that there are a number of unassessed properties, both in terms of construction, expansion and the change of use.As a result, “The municipality has agreed that, in the first half of 2009, it will focus on capturing the information …process same with the assistance of the Chief Valuation Officer and private assessors, determine the new value, and apply the current formula to arrive at new figures.”The properties in the City, Williams disclosed, were assessed some five years ago on the basis of a new system or formula, which not only captured a complete view of the property aerial and otherwise, but stored each property in a data base. The database, the Deputy Mayor said, allows for comparison at anytime of what is captured and of what is on the ground in reality, and also provides for the properties to be assessed on the basis of a market value, as against a rental mode.“Council has already had discussions with the Honourable Minister of Local Government and the Honourable Minister of Finance, under whose jurisdiction the Valuation Division falls, in order to obtain information and begin the exercise of processing same.”In the meantime, though, the municipality also intends to execute a field exercise on all properties that have changed usage, or were expanded since 2003 and may have been captured in the database.And to ensure that some headway is made in this regard, Williams noted,NFL Jerseys 2018, it is the expressed desire and mandate that the municipal administration proceeds vigorously in engaging in judicial processes to recover all outstanding taxes.These processes, he said, will take the forms of Petty Debt Act, Parate Executions and Distraint Warrants.However, Williams articulated, Council is of the view that there is more talk than action in this area, adding that even when concession is granted, maximum use is not made.He noted that the municipality will work towards improving the database to include deletion of properties exempted under Section 212 of the law and within the ambit of collectable taxes,Cheap Soccer Jerseys Free Shipping, and update the Tax Register to take account of domestic properties used for commercial purposes in the City.In addition to the action in the area of property taxes, and even though the performance has been excellent last year, Williams said,NFL Jerseys China, Council is still of the view that more can be collected in revenue from markets and market-related activities.He said that it has been decided that the entire revenue collection system for the markets will be computerised, and vendors/stallholders will be treated in a similar way as with the utility companies.Additional revenue is expected to be realised through proposed new fees under the Public Health Act,Cheap Stitched Jerseys, Williams said.“Council will,Cheap Jerseys From China, from February 15, 2009, implement the new fees under the Act approved some time in November last. This will most likely affect salons which include barber shops, hairdressing and other forms of makeup…”The municipality, as part of its effort in collecting revenue, will strengthen the Building Inspectorate to encourage compliance with laws and regulations, thus attracting necessary processing.And in order to receive stakeholders’ support this year in its attempt to implement new areas of revenue collection, Council had agreed to revive dialogue with Central Government. Additionally, the Council will initiate discussions with unions to examine jointly new ways of revenue earning.“This stakeholder collaboration can only resound to the benefit of the workers and management, as both are key stakeholders in the process of deli