The city government will dabble in economic enterprise to increase its income and reduce reliance on tax revenues.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong said they are looking to implement projects that can create “steady revenue stream” like its pay parking projects, intermodal transport terminal, market development, digital transformation center, and project lightning.
“We are expecting about P500 million to P600M if these are all fully operational, an income that will incrementally increase every year,” the mayor said.
“We want to pursue this instead of simply relying on taxes. It is hard to implement tax reforms now because of the pandemic’s impact which studies say will be felt from 10 to 20 up to even 40 years,” he said.
“It will take a long time for our economy to get back to its growth path. So mabigat, it will be difficult times ahead, sino ang magtataas ng tax niyan? So the only way to be able to generate a consistent revenue stream is through economic enterprise and that is what we are doing now,” he said.
He said the city’s income has stagnated since 2015 and the budget for health and social services has been meager.
“If it goes high, maliit na lang ang increment not enough to cover for inflation and increase in population. Tumatagal dumarami ang tao, mahal bilihin pero ang budget ganun pa rin,” he said.
“Like in pandemic we only had P3M for ayuda but when we mobilized we produced P29M worth of ayuda. Kung wala ‘yun. hirap tayo. So we have to do something,” he said. – Aileen P. Refuerzo
