This, after the City Council and members of Mayor Michael Rama’s executive branch, had a bicameral meeting last Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022, to find a common ground on the proposed tax increase and annual budget for 2023.
Vice Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia told SunStar Cebu Monday, Dec. 12, that the joint meeting yielded good results but that there is still a need to conduct more bicameral meetings to reach a consensus on the matters.
The proposed P50 billion budget for 2023, if approved, would be the biggest annual budget of a local government unit in the Philippines.
The P50 billion budget Rama is proposing for 2023 is a more than 450 percent jump from Cebu City’s budget this year of nearly P9 billion.
Garcia said that during their meeting, both branches of City Hall agreed that there is a need to make a revision of the city’s tax code which has not been updated since 2006.
However, the percentage of increase has not been agreed upon by the two departments and there is a need to hold marathon meetings to discuss the level of increase that will be implemented next year, he added.
With regard to the 2023 budget, Garcia said the council has agreed to “look into the budget” since the public hearing is still ongoing.
“We just agreed that we will look into the budget. Amoang tagsa-tagsaon kay nagsige pa man ta og budget hearing. Wala mi (other) agreement, but amoang giingon ni mayor nga we will support his agenda of a Singapore-like Cebu City,” said Garcia.
(We will look into each item one by one because the budget hearings are still ongoing. We had no other agreement, but we told the mayor that we will support his agenda of a Sinapore-like Cebu City.)
The vice mayor also assured the public that the City Council will not just easily approve the budget without examining and probing the appropriations set by the different City Hall offices.
Despite being dominated by political allies of Rama, Garcia said the City Council, especially those belonging to the majority bloc, are really scrutinizing the proposed budget to ensure that it is geared toward the betterment of the city.
“Our councilors are really scrutinizing the budget even crossing party lines. Dili porke kauban sa partido nga amoa na nang dawaton ang budget. Kinahanglan amoa nang tan-awon. In fact, ang nagsigeg estorya ang mga members na hinuon sa majority bloc,” he said.
(We won’t accept the budget simply because they are our partymates. We have to scrutinize it. In fact, the ones constantly discussing it are the members of the majority bloc.)
Garcia further said special sessions will be called to make sure that the 2023 annual budget will be approved in time and beat the deadline, which is Dec. 31. (IRT)