MoBay mayor cites need for greater property tax compliance

Mark Cummings

Thursday, February 16, 2012

MONTEGO BAY, St James - MAYOR of Montego Bay, Councillor Charles Sinclair has called on local political representatives to encourage residents in St James to pay their property taxes, arguing that a high compliance rate could result in improvements in garbage collection and street lighting in the parish.

"When you go out in your respective communities you need to speak to the citizens about paying their property taxes because it is these taxes that service the street lights and solid waste collection," the mayor said.

Sinclair, who was addressing the regular monthly meeting of the St James Parish Council last Thursday, noted that a recent survey has shown that there is a low compliance rate in the parish.

He cited the upscale community of Westgate Hills as one of several in the parish that has a compliance rate of less than 30 per cent.

Mayor Sinclair was responding to Trevor Parkinson, the councillor for the Salt Spring division (JLP), who raised concerns about the pile-up of garbage in sections of his division.

For the year 2010, the Department of Local Government, on behalf of the St James Parish Council, paid approximately $87.4 million and $103 million to the National Solid Waste Management Authority and the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited, respectively.

Sinclair had long argued that if communities are educated on the importance of paying their property taxes and the amount of monies contributed annually to the payment of street lighting and garbage collection services from property taxes, there might be some level of improvement in the compliance rate.

The mayor urged the councillors to move stridently to highlight the importance of paying property tax, so that most areas can become at least 70 per cent tax compliant.