City Hall Soothes License Concerns, Justifies Garbage Changes

Belmopan Mayor Pablo Cawich is working to calm business owners after trade license confusion, assuring them that extra payments made under the still‑pending new regime will be credited or reassigned as updated notices go out. But even as City Hall sorts out those billing issues, the council is also adjusting garbage fees, changes the mayor says are the result of reassessments in business size and waste output, not arbitrary increases.

 

Pablo Cawich, Mayor, Belmopan

“Well, you saw two receipts, it doesn’t mean necessarily that it’s for the same person.”

 

Reporter

“Okay, they had a before and after, so yeah.”

 

Pablo Cawich, Mayor of Belmopan

“You know how things go. Sometimes people manipulate things to make it appear a certain way. But yes I can answer the question because yes there is some fact in the potential for an increase by certain businesses. As I mentioned, a lot of these businesses were reassessed. I will be sharing the schedule of commercial garbage rates and you will notice it has a reliance on square footage. So if a business has been reassessed and the square footage went up we have to make an adjustment to the garbage fee. There is a second portion other than square footage that is considered with regards to commercial garbage rates. We also consider the category of business because there are certain types of businesses that generate less garbage than others so it’s not just the size of your business the type of business matters as well so that is also a factor. In majority of the cases the increase has been due to the garbage fee that was applied did not match what it was supposed to be. So in a case like that an adjustment had to be made as well.”

 

Belmopan’s mayor is trying to reassure frustrated business owners, saying any extra trade license payments will be corrected, even as City Hall tweaks garbage fees based on updated assessments of business size and the amount of waste they produce.