By now we have seen the ads and heard the uproar about the 90 Mennonite families who are supposedly leaving Belize for Mexico where they'll get free land and less taxes. But is it really true? Well it certainly is in the Menonnite community of Spanish Lookout, which has about 1600 residents. Ervin Thieseen who is a village leader confirmed to 7NEWS that over the past 2 years 25 families have left Spanish Lookout and moved to Mexico. According to Thieseen the majority of the families leaving are young families. And their reason for heading north is taxes and more taxes in Belize versus the subsidies offered in Mexico. Overall Thieseen declared that the local productive sector is under the threat of going out of business because of lack of support from the government.
One farmer who is in jeopardy of losing his farmland because of high land taxes is Clarence Roux. The 67 year old who is originally from Canada has been farming on 200 acres of land in the willows bank area for over 25 years. But Roux may lose his 200 acres because he can't afford the new land tax. Roux says his assessed land tax has quadrupled and he simply can't afford it. He thinks he will end up losing his land.
Clarence Roux, Farmer
"They told me its $1200, its $1100 and something so I just rounded it off to $1200, which is up from $300. I almost fell over. I figured maybe I would pay $500 or something like that but not that much."
Keith Swift,
So you have to pay $1200 which you say you cannot pay. What are you going to do?
Clarence Roux,
"What can I do? What can anybody do? The government is going to steal everybody's place. I paid for the title and now they want to take it away from me. Me I can go back to Canada but where are the Belizeans going to go? Where are they going to go? That's all I can say. I figured if I paid $300 it wouldn't be too bad if maybe it went up a $100 or $150 that was kind of roughish but that's reasonable. Government's got to make some money but not that big a money, not my blood. You can't take blood out of this desk and that's what they are doing. You can't get blood out of the stone. I've been here for 30 years and I see all kind of crookedness go on. I might not be the smartest but I'm not the dumbest either. That's the way I look at it."
As Roux noted in the interview, most of the land is not arable because of its location and soil composition. He previously raised pigs. He now grows cashew trees and a collection of chicken for his personal use. The $1200 in land tax he owes is due at the end of April. Speaking at yesterday's Cabinet briefing Minister of Natural Resources John Briceno says government is willing to work with farmers who can't pay their land tax. He noted that may include them giving up some of their unused acreage.
Johnny Briceno, Minister of Natural Resources
"We recognize that there are cases where certain huge land owners say their taxes have increased tenfold and that there is no way there will be able to afford to pay. Basically what we'll be doing is just taking the land and in many instances some of the land that they have not been able to work because as I mentioned its probably unproductive land, it could be swamp, mangrove, hills, mountains, and lands that it is in the interest of Belize to keep it under its natural state."
Yesterday Briceno announced that his Ministry will be moving from land valuation to assessment in determining taxes due.
