COVID-19 and the Dwindling City Revenues

Bernard Wagner

The Belize City Council is only operating on forty percent of its revenue.  That’s because their revenue stream has dried up significantly due to COVID.  Today, Mayor Bernard Wagner told the press that although they have been experiencing tough times, the belt-tightening has been teaching them valuable lessons.  As the City Council goes into what’s arguably the biggest month for sales for downtown businesses, Wagner anticipates reduced revenues compared to previous years. He says that although things are bad on the economic front, there is a steady growth of small businesses, particularly in the food industry.

Bernard Wagner, Belize City Mayor

“COVID, really, has significantly change the way this council do business. We normally would rely on x amount of dollars in revenue each year from property tax; trade license; liquor license. All of that has been cut significantly to the point where we are operating with forty percent of what we used to collect. So, it has made is prioritize more. We have had to take on fewer projects and that may have been manifested in some of the infrastructures, repairs to the streets that you see evident.”

Andrea Polanco

“What are you hearing from business owners there – is there a concern going into Christmas? This is the time they usually make their money.”

Bernard Wagner

“Of course, Christmas has always been a time of the year where those businesses in the downtown area if they weren’t making their revenues during the year, they would normally get back in the month of the December. Now, given the fact that there are now more restrictions obviously that will impact their ability to see that end of year returns. From our stand point, businesses have really changed. The type of businesses applying for trade license – we are seeing a shift. There are more small businesses being open in the food business. So, we are not seeing a complete going away of people applying for trade license. People are applying for trade license but it is more in the food industry, vending type business. Bars are restricted so we haven’t seen any applications much for bars. At the same time we haven’t seen any extensive closing of bars so that clearly shows our people are resilient and are becoming more of that entrepreneurial spirit.”