Councillor Phillip Willoughby isn’t wrong in saying that property tax forgiveness for the poor is in the law but he should have taken it to the council first before making a public statement on it â€" that’s his opponent Councillor Dion Leslie’s position on that matter. In yesterday’s interview with Mayor Bradley, Bradley out rightly rejected any policy for tax write off’s and went on to call it “irresponsibleâ€. Well today, Councillor Leslie took a more diplomatic approach by saying that the council will have to thoroughly consider all factors, especially financial, before any tax exemptions can made.
Dion Leslie - City Councillor
"In terms of the issue or the claims made by my colleague, it is there in the law but there is more that goes with it than just what you read in the law and at the council we have to sit down and we do things together, we don't make any unilateral decisions and something if that is where the mayor and the council decides to go there are requirements that needs to be met, there is proper vetting, we have to go according to the law it's not something that you do one swoop of a pen and you write off laws. The council does the depend on property tax, it makes up to 40 or 45 percent of our annual budget so it is something we need to look at seriously, it's not something we can just write off and just say well we don't need, we need to run a city. The city needs money to give you core values of the city, the core jobs, the streets, the drains, sanitation so we have to look at it that way."
Courtney Weatherburne
"So in that case you would say that Mr. Willoughby he misspoke in terms of the taxes?"
Dion Leslie
"I wouldn't say he misspoke, maybe he has an idea but he maybe failed to bring it to the council so we can act on it and look at it. If it is an idea that he has, he is a part of the council, he is free to go to the council and we see where we go from there once all procedures are followed, once the vetting process is followed properly, once we look at the finances and if the council can afford it or cannot afford it. You all do know the financial status of the council come low season so all these things need to be taking into consideration before we just get up and say we are going to do something that will have a financial impact on the council."
As Willoughby has stressed, there is a clause in the law that speaks to property tax forgiveness, but as Bradley said, it is not a policy taken by the council. Bradley did mention that they assess on a case by case basis.
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