AUGUST 14, the date set for local government election, is an opportunity for the electorate to take “revenge” on the Prime Minister and his administration for eight years of neglect and incompetence and vote them out, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar is advising.
Hours before Dr Rowley announced the election date on Tuesday, Persad-Bissessar was telling supporters in Rio Claro on Monday night, “to do them back,” when the election bell is rung.
She warned that, with Government’s back against the wall, having lost at the Privy Council to extend the life of local government and now having to call the election, Rowley and the PNM’s entire local government election campaign would be on three things.
“Race, Piarco and property tax because he has no achievements due to his laziness.”
She warned the electorate to be wary of the propaganda that the collection of property tax will go directly to the 14 Regional Corporations. She said that was yet another fallacy.
“The property tax is not going to the corporations; the law is the property tax is going to something called the consolidated fund.”
She said all the monies collected will go to this fund and the government will decide how much they will release to each corporation.
Arguing that the PNM government has a history of financial discrimination to councils and corporations managed by the UNC, she anticipated more cuts to come.
“Right now, Port of Spain gets the highest amounts when you come to Mayaro and Princes Town. You go up to Sangre Grande, they have cut, cut, cut all the corporations under the UNC so they will do it again.”
Between 2019 to 2022, she said, Mayaro/Rio Regional Corporation suffered almost $10 million in cuts to its development programme. Princes Town experienced a $9.2 million cut in its allocation, she claimed.
The Sangre Grande Regional Corporation which the PNM is hoping to regain control of, she said, has been severely undermined through funding cuts totalling $19 million.
“They will promise you LG reform through the property tax but, when they get it in the consolidated fund, they will not release it. Don’t get fooled by their lies, don’t get chained up.
“They may come and try to trick you by saying that they also cut from PNM-controlled corporations, but they are in power, so they simply shift spending to the Ministry of Works to make up.”
She chastised Rural Development and Local Government Minister Faris Al-Rawi for his “cash to care” statement justifying the collection of property tax.
“They tell you they need the property tax to run local government. I want you to ask them this: how was it that under the government that I led, we were able to light up over 100 recreation grounds through local government without property tax?”
She said while government is bent on squeezing another tax from the already-burdened public, a foreigner was hired as the new CEO of Heritage Petroleum at a salary of $180,000 a month.
“The rest of you, you have no jobs and those of you who have the few jobs, four per cent for yo
