In January, the National Assembly passed the Belize City Control of
Garbage and Use of Dumpsite Bylaw – the bill which allows city hall to
charge businesses an annual fee to collect garbage. The money should be passed
through to Belize Waste Control – which will actually collect the garbage
– part of the council’s attempt to regularize its arrangement with
the company that picks up the city’s garbage. The legislation created
a little stir at the time, but nothing much, as enactment was delayed until
June. And that’s why today it created an uproar when well known businessman
and UDP supporter Tony Leslie took to the airwaves railing and raging against
a bill he’d gotten from the City Council for quarterly arrears for garbage
collection. Those arrears are for the months of June, July and August –
which means that the city was charging him for garbage that hadn’t even
been collected.
More than that, the council is charging him nearly $800 per quarter
for garbage from his block factory – garbage that he usually disposes
of himself at the city dump for $75 every three months. So Leslie called in
to Krem’s WUB and went off – notable on many levels, not the least
of which is that he is the father of the Deputy Mayor Dion Leslie. And his message
resonated because no business wants to pay more for anything right now, much
less be slapped with what’s considered to be a garbage tax. Second, many
people we spoke to feel they haven’t been consulted and that the imposition
of the various fees are arbitrary.
And so sensing that the issue needed major and immediate public relations
re-alignment Mayor Moya made an impromptu appearance on Krem and then held a
press conference at noon. She stressed that there businesses will be classified
and charged according to how much garbage they generate, not according to the
size of the business. She explained those classifications.
Mayor Zenaida Moya,
“So there are six business classifications. We have the mom and pop
business, the quantity of garbage per week is 0.1 cubic yard to 0.25 cubic yard.
They pay a monthly fee, and if you want to break that down weekly, they pay
a weekly fee of $2.50. You have the micro-business that is 0.26 cubic yards
to 1.72 cubic yards in terms of production of garbage per week, the small business
which produces garbage between 1.73 cubic yards to 3.99 cubic yard, the medium
business 4 cubic yards to 7.99 cubic yards, the large business 8 cubic yards
to 14.99 cubic yards, and the industrial owner which is 15 cubic yards and over.
What is a cubic yard.”
Phillip Willoughby, City Councillor – Sanitation
“This is a 32 gallon garbage bag, it will take 15 of these bags filled
to capacity to be the equivalence of one cubic yard.”
Mayor Zenaida Moya,
“Clearly, any sensible person will understand that the council cannot
continue to take the funds that otherwise should be going towards the maintenance
of streets, the beautification of parks, traffic management and so forth, and
continue to subsidize the collection of commercial garbage. We are making it
very user friendly. The user are the ones who should be paying for the collection
of garbage. In this case the commercial businesses have to pay for what they
are producing as it pertains to garbage.”
Most of the 1660 businesses that have been assessed are on the small
side: 308 are mom and pop operations; 741 are micro businesses; 363 are small
businesses, 104 are medium; 107 are large and 7 are industrial. But the question
still lingers how is it at that at the start of June those businesses are being
charged for three months of arrears dating up to August? Well, though the bill
says arrears, valuation officer Troy Smith says that was a mistake: - first
though he explained that there was a survey of businesses to determine what
the costs would be.
Troy Smith, Valuation Manager
“There was consultation on the ground whereby we have conducted a
feasibility study per business to analyze and to identify what is the volume
of garbage your business is collecting per week and per month. We have just
recently sent out the bill for this week. So the bill now that we have sent
out is for June, July, and August. Yes this morning we went on the air and there
was some notice of the bill where we stated arrears and it flamed up some concern
and so went to the media and we realized let’s go back and address the
bill and we intend to modify the bill, rectify the bill, and so this week and
next week the business people will get their bill identifying the period per
month that the bill is due. However notwithstanding that I must say that while
the bills are out, your first payment will commence on or before the tenth of
July.
Here yes we did have the word arrears on the bill but at the top it is
marked “the 3rd quarter.” Remember I stated earlier the bill is
per quarter. Yes it is an oversight as an administration to the word arrears
but it is not really arrears. It is a forthcoming bill, forthcoming for the
month so it should have stated “June, July, and August” and so we
corrected it this morning on Krem because it was a concern of most business
owners. So we are going to modify this bill and so by the end of the day this
bill will go out and everyone who already got a bill before will get a new bill
justifying that it is not an arrear.”
Email
Print