Revenue Stream Update from Belize City Mayor
While we were with the Belize City Mayor today, the media asked for an update on the revenue streams at the Council. In April when the state of emergency was declared, economic activity came to a screeching halt at City Hall and there was merely a trickle of income. More than four hundred staff members, except for sanitation workers, had to take a pay cut and that includes councillors. Now going into week three of eased restrictions and the re-opening of most businesses, traffic at city hall is gradually increasing so much so that badly needed revenue has picked up. Mayor Bernard Wagner gives an update on the financial flow at the council.
Bernard Wagner
Bernard Wagner, Belize City Mayor
“We have seen some little improvement. On May the fifteenth, our weekly revenue for that week was two hundred and fifty-eight thousand; for May twenty-second, it went up to three hundred thousand. We are also seeing activity at City Hall, the average for May fifteenth, we saw nine hundred and fifty-eight customers visiting the traffic department. Last week, ending May twenty-second, it was one thousand and seventeen people going to the traffic department at City Hall. It’s in the neighbourhood of close to five hundred and twenty-three were there on May the fifteenth and ending May the twenty-second, it was in the neighbourhood of eight hundred people visiting City Hall. And so we are seeing a gradual increase and that’s why we are keeping the data because you can only plan with having the necessary data. We know that many of our staff are excited and want to come back to work, but we continue to be responsible and we want to look at the numbers and analyze the numbers before we make any decision in bringing back our full staff. Last time we spoke, our staff continues to do on a rotational basis. So to keep all of those four hundred and sixty staff, we came together and say listen, for two weeks, the staff would work two weeks fully, so ih get ih full two weeks and then bring in the other person and that one go on fifty percent. So at the end of the day, the staff essentially is getting seventy-five percent of their monthly pay. The managers, we met with them and they said that they are willing to do sixty-six percent of their monthly salary. As the councillors and the mayor, we continue to be at the bottom level. We continue to insist that we be at the bottom level and that’s why we are now at fifty percent.”
Mayor Wagner says that it is projected that the council will see another revenue spike prior to the June thirtieth deadline with the discount programme.
