Earlier this month the members Trelawny Parish Council councillors announced that they would give up five per cent of their salary to the state-run Falmouth Infirmary.

The gesture, was apparently in keeping with Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s recent call for elected officials to follow his lead by taking a cut in their pay, because of the harsh economic climate.

It follows too on the heels of Mayor of Spanish Town, Dr Andrew Wheatley’s announcement that the majority of members of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) dominated St Catherine Parish Council would take a five per cent cut in their salary and donate it to the parish infirmary.

Other parish councillors in the western region, however, are against taking similar deductions from their pay.

Lloyd Hill, the mayor of Lucea and People’s National Party (PNP), councillor for the Sandy Bay division is among them. He argues that councillors are already grossly underpaid and many have to dig deep in their pockets to provide much-needed assistance to scores of persons in their respective divisions.

Apart from this, he says, due to the “heavy demands” of the job, many councillors are unable to successfully operate their own businesses.

Danree De Lancey, the PNP councillor for the Bethel Town division of the Westmoreland Parish Council, as well as other councillors at that local body agree. Sav-la-Mar Mayor Bertel Moore also said he saw no reason to take a cut.

Being an effective councillor is no easy feat, particularly if you represent a division in the rural parts of the island.

Councillors are expected to attend wakes; funerals; graduations; pay medical bills; provide school books; school uniforms; take the sick to hospitals… by their constituencies.

If they don’t, they are viewed as being ineffective and run the risk of not being voted back into office.

And with the freeze in wages for public sector employees by the government, as well the expected increase in taxes in coming weeks, I must admit that I support the councillors who are not willing to take a cut in their pay.

Their meagre pay of roughly $70,000 per month, it seems, is already insufficient, considering the role they have been playing in their respective divisions.

While the councillors are not being forced to make the deductions from their pay, it is my view that the majority of those who have agreed to take a cut, are doing so solely because of party loyalty.

Is it always going to be party first?

It is my hope, however, that the deductions will not be squandered.