And while the mayor's plan has good intent, does the council have the finances? He explained that tax collection has been incredibly slow because people are using that money to try and put food on their tables. And asking for help from central government is also out of the question since they're broke too!
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"Tax collection has been way below average, way below average. Sometimes myself, I have to really look at how we will get through the dark days of summer. Dark days of summer I call it, the July, the August the September. Residents' expectation remains the same. They want infrastructure, they want street. They call you about canals. They call you about drains. They call you about streets. But the reality is that things are hard. And so what you expected four five years ago in terms of infrastructure has to be curtailed, has to be brought down, because there are different priorities right now. People's concern is about putting food on their table. So the priority of paying property tax is way down the list. And that is the reality that we face and the reality that residents will sometimes have to grapple with. That there are just not the resources there to fix every drain, to fix every street, to dig every canal. So we will really have to temper our expectations as residents and also as a council."
Reporter
"What about the support from central government? The government changed in November, one would expect that the government would be more friendly to this council. What has their support been, I know it's just been under 6-7 months they are in office. Is the council a priority for them in your perspective?"
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"Again, in you are running a business and you are broke yourself, you can't help anyone else. That is the reality. We don't expect to get much assistance from the government. The government have been there for us in terms of providing whatever measures such as this to facilitate and making our job a bit easier, but in terms of financial assistance, that's is a no-no right now and we will live with it."
