Espinoza: Is Cebu City’s proposed P50 billion budget realizable?

Without the planned one-time big-time increase in real property tax, the P50 billion budget that Mayor Mike Rama proposed for next year to support his Singapore-like vision for Cebu City could not be attained. Most city councilors, even if they support the Singapore-like dream of the city mayor, could not agree on the imposition of the humongous tax burden on the taxpayers.

The several public hearings that the City Council conducted under the leadership of Vice Mayor Raymond Alvin N. Garcia is yet to arrive at a common stand on how to support the huge P50 billion budget for 2023 and the decision on how to collect taxes in other ways.

Reviewing the sentiments of most city councilors, it’s apparent that the P50 billion proposed budget of the executive department is difficult to achieve. In a chance meeting last week, Vice Mayor Garcia expressed doubt that the City Council will pass and approve the P50 billion budget for next year. He said the most that the City Council could do is break it down to P20 billion or P30 billion.

Since the proposed P50 billion budget would depend on the collection of the taxes, there is serious doubt that the City Council would pass this budget because most, if not all city councilors, including the vice mayor, are not so keen in imposing the one-time big-time tax on real properties where everyone, the small and big taxpayers, would be inconvenienced.

City Councilor Joy Pesquera, a lawyer who is also a certified public accountant, raised the question of how could the treasury department collect the needed funds when in 2020 and 2021 the collections fell short of the target. The city treasurer and the mayor’s representative could not answer.

Also, the proposal of the city mayor’s financial advisors to impose the one-time huge tax on real property to achieve the P50 billion proposed budget is ill-timed because we’re still reeling from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the two typhoons that hit the city in December last year and few months ago.

I believe though that improving the city’s state should not depend on the city’s huge budget. The City Government already has the designated agencies and personnel to implement sanitation and impose discipline to attain the desire of the city mayor to transform Cebu City into a Singapore-like city. What made Singapore what it is today all started with the strict enforcement of its laws that at one time Singapore was infamous for its human rights violations.

And while the City Council is still in a state of stupor, so to speak, on how to approve the P50 billion proposed budget of the executive department, Mayor Rama should now be strictly enforcing ordinances on sanitation, traffic, obstruction-free sidewalks, and more.

There are those who cannot fathom the need of billions in order to achieve the Singapore-like vision of Mayor Rama when the strict enforcement of city ordinances does not need that much money. The city’s laws are already in place and it’s only a matter of implementing them.

Some opined though that the huge budget could be in preparation for exigencies to come.

The problem of garbage is yet to be addressed by the city administration. Anywhere you go, garbage is just dumped on the corners of the road or in uninhabited lots in the city. To me, the first step to transform Cebu City into like Singapore is keeping the streets clean from trash, and the homeless individuals and street children must be transferred to shelters.