MONTEGO Bay Mayor Richard Vernon says more than $1 billion in property taxes remain unpaid by residents in gated and other formal communities across the municipality, putting a strain on local authorities’ efforts to maintain infrastructure in St James.

“About 90 per cent of [these communities] are paying, but as to the percentage of the population within the community that is paying, it varies, and not just paying at the current day rate or what is outstanding currently, but the accrued amount as well,” said Vernon.

“I will tell you there are communities like Ironshore and those areas with $500 million outstanding. Bogue Village, 1,000 lots are outstanding for the fiscal year, but there is also an accrued amount… I don’t remember the exact figure, but we have a couple billion in terms of property taxes outstanding across the municipality,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“For Meadows of Irwin, I believe they are at about 30 per cent in terms of compliance and that is putting a strain on the resources that we have to work with to cover large communities like Meadows of Irwin and smaller ones,” he said.

The National Land Agency states that property, or land tax, is imposed on a person in possession of land, such as the owner, occupier, or mortgagor. The tax is based on the unimproved value of the land.

Property tax covers community infrastructure and civic improvements, the rehabilitation of parochial and farm roads, as well as the provision of minor water supply and more.

The mayor said that it is often the residents of informal communities who are compliant in paying their property taxes, and it is “a little bit discouraging” to know that it is the well-established communities that have everything in place, in terms of water, street lights, and roads, that present the most challenges with collection.

“We are still at a crossroads where gated communities are concerned and the policies at the local level concerning gated communities. I believe something is being looked at, at a higher level, but until then…we try as best as possible to carry out the maintenance in these communities,” said Vernon.

“What we urge them to do, regardless of the fact that they are gated and already paid for their property or they’re paying for it, is to consider that the funds that we need to operate in that space must come from the communities,” he stressed.

The mayor said that St James Municipal Corporation has hosted community meetings to discuss the issue and encourage compliance among property owners. Similar activities have been initiated at the central government level.

“Among the government employees, we check the councillors and encourage them to pay their property taxes. The staff at the municipal corporation, we encourage them to pay theirs also, because we must lead by example. Then we send requests to our sister agencies and departments to have their members pay up their taxes as well,” said Vernon.

“People are not making the connection between property taxes and the maintenance requirements for de-bushing, road patching, garbage collection, the street lights, and drain cleaning,” he told the Observer.

“We say it casually, but in reality, we are not prioritising it. They may say, ‘Oh, we are not seeing value for money, we are not seeing this, we are not seeing that,’ but if I should put it to them, what is the cost to maintain all these communities and the town centres, which also benefit from property taxes, versus what we collect in terms of property taxes, they would see the sizeable gap,” he said.

The mayor explained that money collected for property tax across Jamaica is placed in the Consolidated Fund managed by the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development. He said the funds are distributed equally among the municipalities to tend to infrastructure needs.

“It now takes effort from a larger cross section of Jamaica to be on board with compliance. Otherwise, you will just find one set of persons paying to the benefit of other persons who are not paying,” he said.