The San Pedro Town Council (SPTC) has recently concluded a complete assessment of properties and businesses on the island. The assessment will help the SPTC to better ascertain and evaluate taxes and other fees including those of garbage collection. While the report on the assessment of properties is still in its final stages, garbage collection fee assessments have been completed. According to the SPTC, fees are declared annually, and billed on a monthly basis.
One of the findings from the assessment, said the Mayor of San Pedro Town Daniel Guerrero, is that some businesses were not in the system, and was not being billed for garbage disposal fee. “What we have done is that we have written to these businesses, informing them that they will now be billed and entered into our garbage collection fee system. We are finding that businesses are sprouting all over the place and we want to ensure that we have them in the SPTC garbage fee system,” said Mayor Guerrero. “It will help us have a better system and it will also ensure that we are able to meet our expenses,” he added.
According to the SPTC, those garbage disposal fees range from business to business, but are set annually by evaluators. Those fees vary depending on various factors, including but not limited to, business type, size and location and may range from $10 to $150 monthly. Mayor Guerrero also said that the new property tax assessment for the current year has not been completed, but as soon as they are completed, the public will be informed in order for them to make payment arrangements.
It is also expected that as soon as the Solid Waste Management Project (SWMP) gets on-stream on Ambergris Caye, residents/households will be billed for the collection of residential garbage. Garbage collected through the SWMP will be barged off the island to a centralized location off the George Price Highway and the long term sustainability of the project will be financed through garbage collection fees. Currently, the municipality does not collect residential garbage fee even though provisions in the law allow the council to do so.
