Prime Minister, the Honorable Said Musa meets with SPBA

Meeting held November 14th, 2007 at Banana Beach Resort

The Prime Minister of Belize, the Honorable Said Musa met with the members of the San Pedro Business Association on November 14th, 2007 to address key issues affecting Ambergris Caye. It was a friendly meeting, where members of the SPBA engaged the Prime Minsiter in an open dialogue on matters such as Infrastructure (Roads and Garbage), Crime and Ambergris Caye’s political status and place within the country.

After the introductions, the Prime Minister made a short speech, in which he outlined the work that he had already done in terms of infrastructure By the Central Government. He went on to state that issues like roads, police and garbage are typical problems that have to be dealt with by the San Pedro Town Council. He emphasized that the government is making big efforts to develop better electricity infrastructure and a new water distribution system for the island. After these remarks, the floor was opened to questions.

Chris Berlin addressed the issues facing the island in regard to policing and crime. He asked for extra help in the budget for the San Pedro Police Force. Gricel Graniel pointed out that in order for San Pedro to remain a large generator of tax income for the rest of the country, our tourists have to be protected.

Chris Alnatt did the math on the police officers. With 1,200 police officers countrywide for a population of 300,000 citizens, it works out to 1 police officer for every 250 people. In San Pedro we have 26 officers for a population of about 18,000 (not including tourists), which works out to 1 police officer for every 692 people. Others pointed out the increase in crime of a more violent nature, and asked if some arrangement with the Belize Defence Forces could be developed to cope with the situation.

The Prime Minister seemed somewhat surprised by these facts and figures. He mentioned that there is indeed a new plan in development that will involve the BDF assisting law enforcement. The details of this plan will be forthcoming very shortly. The Hon. Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Defence, confirmed that an agreement is in the works, although he could not comment on specifics at this time.

On the issue of roads, Peter Lawrence reminded the Prime Minister of the meeting last year when the Central Government decided to assist in the current road paving project (after the then unborn SPBA threatened not hand over anymore of the business taxes generated on the island). Peter asked if the Prime Minister could do the same thing and promise another 4 million dollars to continue the road building, and road fixing throughout the island. Unfortunately the Prime Minister didn’t bring a check this time.

Of course the issue of funding came up, and the argument that the SPTB (San Pedro Town Board) only receives BZ$ 69,000 from Central Government. The Prime Minister pointed out property taxes and trade license fees (which are collected and used by the SPTB) should be around 9 to 10 million. After some asking around that figure turned out to be 3 million dollars, and according to Manuel Herredia about 2.4 million of that has been collected. It should also be noted that according to figures that are 3 years old, all the businesses on Ambergris Caye pay about BZ$ 60,000,000 annually to the GOB.

Another issue that arose was the DFC area, where no property taxes are being paid. There seems to be a lot of confusion about this area. The Prime Minster stated that residents of the DFC subdivision are required to pay property taxes to the SPTB, and promised the SPTB help in collecting these taxes. Regarding to the roads in DFC the issue was raised that in a subdivision the developer should take care of the infrastructure, in this case the developer being the GOB. According to the Prime Minister, the roads are the responsibility of the SPTB.

As for the garbage, the Prime Minister was surprised to learn that San Pedro does not have a true compacting Garbage Truck. Once again the issue of funding and tax dollar allocation arose. The SPBA is working on a plan regarding the garbage issue, so hopefully there will be support for this plan from both the Town Council and the Central Government.

Finally Steve Schulte made a direct plea to the Prime Minister for Ambergris Caye to become it’s own district within the country. Steve mentioned that Ambergris Caye (and San Pedro) has always had the attitude of dealing with their problems on their own. During this meeting it became clear that Belmopan is poorly informed about the status on our island, and he concluded that we would be better able to deal with our problems if we had the status of a district, and our own minister and a budget to go along with that.

The PM agreed that that was a very valid point, said he would certainly be open to looking at the possibility of making Ambergris Caye it’s own district, however he also mentioned that he didn’t want to make this subject into an election stunt, so he suggested continuing this conversation after the upcoming elections either with himself if re-elected, or with the next government if that does not happen.