THE chairman of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) Finance Committee on Tuesday said much more than the $5.2 billion that was approved for the 2024/2025 budget will be needed to pay for the services it offers throughout the municipality.

As a result, the municipal corporation plans to ramp up its efforts to collect property taxes, among other drives and initiatives that can increase the amount of funds it has at its disposal.

“That will give us the resources to address some of the chronic problems that citizens have been complaining about,” Committee Chairman Councillor Dennis Gordon (People’s National Party, Maxfield Park Division) told the Jamaica Observer after the KSAMC Council meeting in the Marcus Garvey Chamber.

During the meeting, councillors gave approval for revenue expenditure budgets for financial years 2023/2024 ($5,326,574,844) and 2024/2025 ($5,274,417,709.32).

The budgets were approved at a finance committee meeting before Tuesday but in order to observe proper procedure they must be approved by the full council of the KSAMC.

As it relates to the 2023/2024 budget not being passed before Tuesday, Gordon stated that there was a breach, as money was being spent without any approved budget.

Councillor Vernon McLeod (Jamaica Labour Party, Havendale Division), who is the minority leader for the finance committee, thanked Gordon for his persistence in having the 2023/2024 budget brought to the councillors for approval.

“The budget, I am really sorry it wasn’t approved by council. It took quite a long time, and there were some things outstanding from the ministry, as a result we were not able to bring that budget to council. Thank you that you persisted and brought it to council as a group. I must confirm that I recommended it to my colleagues for approval,” McLeod said.

Gordon sought to give somewhat of a breakdown of how the budget is usually allocated. He pointed out that half of it is usually reserved to pay bills.

“Our annual budget of $5.4 billion is financed basically from own source and monies from the parent ministry (Local Government and Community Development). Of the $5 billion, 50 per cent is not managed by us. Those monies are held at source to pay Jamaica Public Service Company Limited and National Solid Waste Management Authority for garbage collection. The other 50 per cent is what we use to deliver the services across the municipality, such as road repairs, garbage collection, fixing street lights, etc.

“We realise that the demand for service has grown exponentially but the resources do not grow in that magnitude, and so we are on a drive to ensure that we increase our own source and that we have budgetary allocation to underwrite the services that we provide. There are three things that we plan to do. With those three areas we are projecting we should be able to increase our own source by 200 per cent. We are on a drive to collect all outstanding funds owed to the council. We plan to do a city lotto that would bring significant resources to the council on a sustainable level, perhaps $3 billion a year to improve the services,” Gordon told the Observer.

He said the municipality is exploring an opinion from the Attorney General’s Chambers that utility service providers should pay the municipality for allowing them to use its property to provide services, for example poles.

Gordon also said that citizens often complain about the state of city infrastructure, poor garbage collection, and the lack of street lights.

“It is important for residents to be aware of the challenge. Motor vehicle licensing is one main contributor to our own source. Compliance with property tax is a struggle. As things deteriorate economically, property tax is the last call. You can understand why — we are not into the business of seizing people’s property for outstanding payment. We are into the business of engaging them, having discussions with them, and doing a payment plan where necessary because we have an appreciation for the fact that things are challenging,” Gordon said.