Prohibition of unlawful fee charged by City Council is both timely and most welcome

Finally, some relief has been brought to the citizens of Georgetown who have been battered by the Mayor and City Council over the years with their arbitrary, punitive and now proven unlawful imposition of some outrageous new taxes, fees and fines. The recent judicial decision which now prohibits the City from imposing a fee or charge for the issuance of a certificate enabling the transfer of a property under the Deeds Registry Act is both timely and most welcome. It was also very encouraging to learn that those who paid such fees following July 8th, 2015 are now entitled to a refund. For far too long, the City Council has been allowed to operate as though it is above the law, or, are indeed the law of the land, they seemed to harbour the misguided view that Council meetings are comparable to Parliament where they perform a legislative function and pass laws which are not in sync with the nation’s laws. For years now, when preparing their yearly budgets, rather than trim their expenses to match revenue collection, they instead conjure up all sorts of spurious new taxes, fees and fines, which they have been getting away with, in large measure, because citizens are not inclined to seek redress in the courts. Just look at the container fees, the parking meter system, the maintenance fee to assist with the general upkeep of the cemeteries, the weekly $100 fee for the collection of garbage from city homeowners, commercial-waste fee to all businesses, the new fees which are affecting salons, barber shops, just to name a few.

It should be noted that a lot of these taxes are already built into the property rates that are collected, resulting in double taxation. And, I might add, quite unlawfully, they no longer serve property owners with demand notices, yet still they are charging interest. But most alarming, is that many of the services that the Georgetown Municipality should be providing for the fees they collect, they don’t. For example, they don’t build or maintain roadways in Georgetown, they hardly have food hygiene services, or meat processing services being offered at the abattoir, they’ve relinquished providing daycare services in the city. Just look at the sorry state of the cemeteries, they don’t build nor maintain bridges, they don’t deal with stray animals on the streets, they are not maintaining parapets or drains, they do not even maintain City Hall, their headquarters. So what do they do with all these fees they collect? Citizens should no longer be led by their noses, but seek to verify the legitimacy of fees and charges they are requested to pay, and, I encourage those who have paid the fee for the issuance of a certificate enabling the transfer of a property since July 8th, 2015, to claim a refund.