Government caves in, will give CITCO the dollar

After weeks of saying that even if the Belize City Council needed more money, it shouldn’t come from the head tax on cruise tourists, government suddenly reversed itself as Cabinet approved a plan to provide the council with exactly what it asked for. Today the Mayor ran a victory lap and News Five’s Janelle Chanona was alongside.

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
This morning Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya and her council took to their case to the street … Fort Street that is, to canvass the businessmen and women working in and around the Tourism Village.

Despite confirmation from Cabinet that their campaign to secure one U.S. dollar from the cruise passenger head tax money has been successful, Moya and her council say they want to make sure they have support where it matters most. And judging by this conservation with one supporter, the Mayor is keeping her options open.

Supporter #1
“We deh behind yuh, one hundred percent.”

Zenaida Moya, Belize City Mayor
“So if we meet out yah and we seh we ready, you deh wid we?”

Supporter
“We ready, we always ready.”

Supporter #2
“Just come and say it.”

Supporter #1
“We di suffa out yah mein. We ready?”

Supporters
“We ready!”

Supporter #1
“We dah no wah political people, no P.U.P. or U.D.P.”

Zenaida Moya
“This dah fu the people.”

Supporter #1
“We deh suffa out yah, we need fu tek wah stand.”

Escorted by the Fort Street Tourism Village’s acting general manager Evelyn Deeks and dock master Michael Mulligan, the councillors then toured the facility, meeting and greeting shop owners and tourists, and even window shopping for jewellery. At noon, Moya had yet to receive official documentation on the proposal packaged, but according to a release from the Cabinet, the Belize City Council will receive one U.S. dollar from the seven U.S. dollar head tax: a joint payment from the Belize Tourism Board, the Protected Areas Conservation Trust, and the Fort Street Tourism Village.

The Musa administration refers to the extra money as an increased subvention. The monies will be deposited into a special account in the name the Belize City Tourism Development Fund and will be administered by the Minister of Local Government, Jose Coye. If accepted, the arrangement would take effect on February first.

Zenaida Moya
“We don’t have a problem in terms of how it is being given at the end of the day, as long as it is given fairly and legislatively done. We feel that you know, by us receiving it through another entity, could pose some problems. We wanted it to be given to us directly you know, so that there is no different problems like what we went through previously. Clearly, the council will have to sit and discuss and along with our party, we will definitely decide whether or not the proposal is something that we can go with.”

Godfrey Smith, Minster of Tourism
“It’s stated to be used for tourism projects; we would hope that it was used for tourism projects, but I do not envision a situation where if they haven’t been using it for tourism projects the money would be withheld. Ultimately, when you give the subvention you can say we hope it’s spent for tourism projects. Ultimately, that’s a matter for the City Council.”

And does the money come with any strings attached?

Godfrey Smith
“Just the normal auditing requirements that the City Council is in any event accountable to the Ministry of Local Government. I don’t know what the details of those are; it’s just the normal requirements, whatever those are.”

Today Minister of Tourism Godfrey Smith also addressed the fact that the move to give the City Council the cash could open the door for others to come with their hands out, like the communities of Frank’s Eddy and those along the Old Northern Highway, whose resources are daily impacted by hundreds of cruise passengers.

Godfrey Smith
“It was always my view that I wasn’t convinced of the merit of saying it is the cruise busses that were mashing up the streets of Belize City. In fact the Marine Parade Boulevard was created specifically to ease congestion and to develop a special route for busses. It’s really people at the sites, whether it’s Altun Ha or Frank’s Eddy or in Cayo that could bolster a more moral and legitimate claim to a portion of head taxes, so you’re right. We would have to say yes, there’s a just cause but ultimately there’s only so much money to go around.”

If approved, Mayor Moya says one way the extra monies will be used is to pave select streets. But is the council still enamoured with the tactic of threatening disruptive behaviour?

Zenaida Moya
“Any right minded thinking, just government should not have to wait until such a threat is thrust upon them for them to react. So clearly I feel that there needs to be some maturity on the level of Central Government and hopefully you know, they will get their act together.”

Godfrey Smith
“Even though an opposition party expecting or hoping to form the next government has an obligation to act responsibly, maturely, and responsibly if they are to convince the electorate of anything, I don’t believe they have. Ultimately however, it is the incumbent government that bears the greater burden of acting responsibly, even in the face of reckless and outrageous demands and actions. And ultimately, that is what guided I believe the Cabinet to the decision that, “Well here is the money, let’s see what other excuse you will find to not get the job done.” Because it is my firm belief and I am today predicting, that after they get this money, they will be unable to competently carry out their duties as a City Council and they’ll make up some excuse again and try to lump it at government’s doorstep. That is my prediction.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.

According to Smith, the extra money given by the B.T.B. will not impact funds earmarked for tourism promotion efforts or product development. And while Government can control the actions of PACT and the B.T.B., the Fort Street Tourism Village is another matter. We understand that the village’s owners are currently reviewing Government’s proposal positively, but will make a formal announcement next week. Such an outcome leads to the question of what will the village ask in return for their lost thirty-three cents.