AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Belize Life Living in Belize "San Pedro Taxes What do you think?" Open Thread

Along the lines of local taxes and local services, I just learned that the police force in Belize is national not local.

I was also told that one suggestion made to the town counsel to combat the rising crime on the island was for San Pedro to have it's own local police force. This makes sense to me.

Does anyone know if this is being pursued by the town counsel?

From the Towns Property Tax Act - Subsidiary:

2. The Property Evaluation fee for San Pedro Town shall be as follows:-
(a) in respect of unoccupied property of a value of three
hundred dollars and above, 1.5% of the value thereof;
(b) in respect of unoccupied property of a value of less than
three hundred dollars, the sum of one dollar;
(c) in respect of occupied property of an annual value of
thirty-five dollars and above, 2.5 % of the annual value
thereof;
(d) in respect of occupied property of an annual value of less
than thirty-five dollars, 2.5% of the annual value thereof;
Provided, however, that the sum of one dollar shall be the minimum
rate payable in respect of any property or holding of real- property.

It should be noted that in the Towns Property Tax Act sale of the property to pay arrears is law.

You can reference the act at: http://www.belizelaw.org/lawadmin/index2.html

keyword search property

Most of the comments concerning the lack of adequate police protection are stating the lack of funds to provide enough police, adequate housing for the police and proper equipment. It would not matter whether it was a local or national force if not funded properly. It would seem logical to attempt a solution working within the existing police force before creating a new one.

True except that if a local police force required their officers to also live local then that increases said officers interest in "cleaning up" the community in which they live.

I was told that many of the officers on the island live on the mainland or their families live on the mainland. Is this true?

What has where the local police live have to do with TAXES on the Island?

A local police force would be funded with local tax dollars.

The housing provided for the police while serving on the island leaves a lot to be desired.

This whole discussion is about "services" right?

No one is really complaining that the taxes are too low. We want more services, more water & sewer, better roads, more / better police services and are willing to pay for those services.

Local police would live in their own houses.

I do not know of one San Pedrano police officer or member of the BDF. San Pedranos in general are accustomed to a lifestyle that could not be maintained if one were to join the government services. Therefore our police officers are all transplants from the mainland. Most of their families continue to live on the mainland due to the high cost of living on the island, as well as the fact that the officers are rotated from area to area around the country on a regular basis. They don't have enough time to establish a "home life" in San Pedro before it is time to move on.

As Simon has mentioned above, property tax rolls are public. You can go to the town board offices and they can release the requested info to you. Obviously they're not going to print out all 4,000 or so bills for you to peruse, but you can ask for specific bills.

There is legislation in place that enables the town board to auction off your property in order to satisfy arrears. It rarely happens, but it is done from time to time.

Years ago the town council had a fellow that collected taxes full time for a fee of 10% of collections. That sounds a little high until you realize the amount of work, time and energy involved. It was also his job to draft and publish legal notices and eventually seek judgments and perform auctions.

Most town boards don't enforce these issues to the extreme because it can make them unpopular - and they are after all, politicians.

A revamp of the system is in the works, I don't know what methods they will be utilizing. There is a valuation board and an appeals process available if some owners have compelling reasons why an assessment might be overly burdensome.

For those that have a moment, please send me your responses to the questions that I posed on the other thread.

Thanks for your time.