Cebu City’s P50B budget for 2023

It is a common sense and a wisdom-filled way of doing things that we spend within our means. “Kung maikli ang kumot, matutong mamaluktot.” There is a Visayan way: “Gamay’ng batonis, gamay’ng uhalis.”

But the executive department's proposed P50B budget for 2023 in Cebu City seems to be not guided by the said wisdom. The budget is a significant amount. It is a giant, if not scandalous, leap from the usual budget

One can easily see that there are items in the budget that make one ask where and in hell the money will be spent. Some allocations for training, for example, make one wonder how the government evaluates or assesses such endless activity.

Such is Mayor Michael Rama’s way of funding his ambitious – some say delusional – Singapore-like Cebu City vision. But the City Council carries the world on its back as it seems to have difficulty defending or explaining the budget to the public.

Where are we going to get the money to fund this budget? The answer is what many dread: raising property taxes. We are not talking of ordinary raise here. It’s hair-raising, and it will be hitting everyone.

The first plan was to do it one time or all at once. It was met with resistance. Now, there is a plan to do it on a staggered basis. One thing is sure: one time or staggered. The raise will still be high.

Are the Rama administration and his party, Barug, ready enough for the backlash? We don’t know. The mayor is hell-bent on turning his Singapore-like Cebu City vision into a reality. He is fixed on realizing within three years what he can be done in nine, whatever that means.

Sensing the coming of a political storm, no less than the former mayor Alvin Garcia and father of Vice Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia advised the council during the 1st Sangguniang Panlungsod Gala to prioritize improving the business climate before imposing a raise in tax. Is there anybody who is listening?

It is easy to understand why people are not ready to be too burdened with taxes, given that we all continue to reel from the paralyzing economic effects of Covid-19 and Typhoon Odette. The business sector has yet to recover from the crisis.

There is a claim that even without an increase in property tax, the budget could still be funded through efficient tax collection. If that is the case, why the rush in ramming down the public's throat with the increase in taxes?

In all fairness to Mayor Mike Rama, he is one who is ready to listen and explain his side. When there was an uproar over his announcement to remove the edifices within the three-meter easement, he visited me, as he promised, to explain his side during my Straight to the Point radio program over DYHP RMN CEBU.

Recently, I bumped into him at the Cebu Cathedral, and he promised to revisit me at the station. I expect him to justify this P50B budget for 2023.