Revenue Stream at the Municipal Level a Drop in the Bucket

Bernard Wagner

There has been major inactivity at town councils across the country. Many of its services they provide are not considered essential and as such, several of the council’s departments have been closed to the public. The Belize Mayor’s Association has been in discussion on the loss of revenue at the municipalities which are struggling with meeting salary payments and other commitments.  In the case of Belize City, an online platform had been created for persons to be able to make payments and access traffic department services, but the tax revenues have dropped. Mayor Bernard Wagner says that the revenue stream at the municipal level has dropped to almost nothing.

Bernard Wagner, Belize City Mayor

“Our revenue stream has been cut significantly; roughly, we are down to like twenty percent performing in our revenues. That clearly cannot be sustained. If we are thinking about laying off people, that is not on the agenda right now; we don’t want to add to the already large unemployment market right now. We are looking at it and we are taking it day by day and when that time come, we will have to look critically at it.  I went from 150K….in the first week of April one-fifty—that was very well below what we would usually get per month. But for the first week of April, we were at 150K and then I watch it.  The second week, it went down to like two thousand and this week, it is like a hundred and fifty dollars. That’s the reality out there.”