Despite being largely spared from the more devastating effects of Hurricane Beryl, the St Mary Municipal Corporation (SMMC) is preparing for a significant decline in revenue in the coming months.
SMMC Chairman and Port Maria Mayor, Fitzroy Wilson, sounded the alarm during Thursday’s SMMC general meeting, warning that the municipality will have to tighten its belt.
Further, he said the possibility exists that earnings from the Parochial Revenue Fund (PRF) will be reduced.
“Because of Hurricane Beryl and its aftermath, our earnings will be curtailed, and we have to spend and spend cautiously as we approach the next quarter of our financial year,” Wilson warned.
“Our PRF earnings, we are looking that it is going to be less because you would have looked at the issue with the electricity, and that the electricity outage would have somewhat hampered our economy in the natural earnings that we would have had,” he stated.
“And (it’s) tough times to come,” declared the mayor.
To mitigate the impact, Wilson urged the municipal team and councillors to focus on generating income through alternative sources, such as market fees, transportation fees, and enforcing payment from merchants who have evaded their obligations.
“The municipal team, (and) the planning department, we will have to go out there. As councillors, we have to support them in the income-generating things… for the municipal corporation,” Wilson urged.
“The signs, the billboards, the market fees, the transportation fees, the illegal building (fees)… that is evading us, I am saying that no effort should be saved in going after these,” he asserted.
“The merchants who are not paying over their obligations; those operations will have to commence again (for them to pay),” the mayor indicated.
