The prospectus for the Municipal Bond has not been presented yet - but the city council has started a publicity campaign to generate public support for it.
And, right on time, The Belize Municipal Bond Bill went to the Senate today.
But the representative of the business sector expressed reservations - which is notable since the business sector is expected to buy into the bond offering.
Senator Mark Lizarraga said that he is concerned that the Council plans to use 50% of its current revenue stream to service the bond:..
Senator Mark Lizarraga
"We are bit alarmed that this 9A speaks to interest and principal payable in any year in respect of its debts shall not exceed 50% of the council's recurrent revenue from the previous year. Mr. President let's think about this, is the council in a surplus situation now or does it foresee being in a surplus situation in the future where it can take 50% of its income only to service debts and still be able to provide the services, salaries, garbage collection or whatever it is that the council is supposed to do - can it do that on the remaining 50% if its allocating for the possibility for using 50% of its income just to debt service. We think that that number is too high - 50% of your income just to finance debt. Yes we want the nice streets and yes we are happy for the beautiful streets that Belize will now have, streets that will last long hopefully. But we have to be responsible, we have to act responsibly. Can the City Council say to us that with 50% of the income that we have we will be able to take care of salaries, garbage collection and the other streets that will still need maintenance and repair, drains etc. Can they tell us that? We think it's too ambitious."
Lizarraga later said that he does support the Bill - but no division was taken - so we can't say how he voted. Regardless - the bill was passed by the Senate and now only awaits the Governor General's signature.
Commenting about the Senator's adverse comments - Mayor Darrell Bradley told us via text that quote, "how can a business senator ever say an initiative to invest 20 million dollars into a municipality is too ambitious?" End quote.
He continues, "I do not place much on (the Senator's) comment."
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