Platform Talk 4: Why NO Local Government Reform?

Local Government Elections 2016 (LGE 2016) the message from the PNM platforms was clear: A Vote for the PNM is a Vote for Local Government Reform!! This election is about Local Government Reform!!!
“The PNM's cam­paign for the No­vem­ber 28 lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions will fo­cus on lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form. As sure as night fol­lows day, the PNM gov­ern­ment is go­ing to re­form lo­cal gov­ern­ment to bring pow­er to the peo­ple. The par­ty is ready to de­liv­er.
It is re­al and it will hap­pen. Just as night fol­lows day, lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form is go­ing to hap­pen this time," PNM Chair­man and Min­is­ter of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment and Rur­al De­vel­op­ment, Franklin Khan, de­clared at the of­fi­cial launch of the PNM's lo­cal gov­ern­ment cam­paign on 30 October.
Every night we were reminded – Vote for Local Government Reform, Vote PNM!!! We Red and Ready.
WHO COULD REFORM LOCAL GOVERNMENT
The impression was deliberately cultivated. By voting for PNM Councillors, the burgesses would be ensuring that the LG Reform proposed by that party would become a reality within the 2016-19 Term of the Corporations.
But, even if PNM won every one of the 137 seats in the 14 Corporations, Local Government Reform was not to be implemented by anybody in the Corporations.
Why? Because Reform of the Local Government system (using the THA model as suggested) had to be done by amending the Municipal Corporations Act and at least 6 other pieces of legislation. And, no Mayor, Chairman, Alderman or Councillor of a Regional Corporation, even a reformed Corporation had any power to change an Act of Parliament.
That is for the MPs and Senators to do. That is for the Government to do.
Corporations are under the control of the Local Government and Finance Ministries at present. 
As such, the Corporations are controlled by the Central Government NOT the burgesses of the Corporations.
So, a vote in LGE 2016 was not really a vote for LG Reform, but, may have signalled a desire for reform of the Local Government system which burgesses want in a manner which empowers them in decision-making that affects their lives at a very basic level.
REFORM - LOW GOVERNMENT PRIORITY
An Express Editorial, in mid-July 2018, reminded us - “More than 18 months after the 2016 local government elections, reform seems to have dropped off the Government’s priority list…. Ahead of the 2019 local government elections, the population must insist that reform is returned to the national agenda and that they will cast votes based on meaningful improvements in their communities rather than stake a claim for their respective parties in the 2020 general election.”.
In fact, the Local Government Reform Bill (The Miscellaneous Provisions (Local Government Reform) Bill, 2019) was only laid in Parliament on 24 May 2019, 6 months before the end of the current Term of Corporation representatives. The Bill was then referred to a Joint Select Committee a month later on 26 June 2019.
On 3 November 2019, 1 month before the December 2 LGE 2019 polling date, Franklin Khan, now PNM’s as­sis­tant cam­paign man­ag­er reminded us that the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Re­form Bill, which seeks to amend the Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tion’s Act, the Prop­er­ty Tax Act and six oth­ers, is cur­rent­ly be­fore a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee of Par­lia­ment.
He said, “The chances are the leg­is­la­tion will not be passed be­fore the lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions. Hav­ing said that, for over four decades, suc­ces­sive ad­min­is­tra­tions have been promis­ing lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form.”
NO REFORM IN THE CURRENT TERM
Khan admitted, “De­spite lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form be­ing a 2015 elec­tion promise of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment, the leg­is­la­tion that would give more au­ton­o­my to mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions will not be ready ahead of the De­cem­ber 2 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions.”.
So, despite promises in General Elections 2015 (GE 2015) and again in LGE 2016, another LGE campaign is upon us and the PNM has failed to deliver its promised Local Government Reform. This seems a bit like déjà vu. Between 2006 and 2010, the PNM promised LG Reform, postponed LG Elections 2 or 3 times, but failed to deliver.  The PP also failed to deliver in 2010-2015.
Why no delivery in 2016-19?
As Khan explained, the necessary legislative changes, the Reform Bill, has not even been debated, far less passed by the Parliament. The Draft Policy was issued in October 2016. But, the Bill did not reach Parliament until May 2019.
Mounting the PNM LGE 2019 platform in Tunapuna, the Leader of the PNM, presented a different picture, seeking to blame the Opposition UNC for the failure of the PNM to deliver LG Reform within the current LG Term. (See video - https://youtu.be/mUN-QEE5UAs)
BOGEY TIME
According to PM Rowley, “UNC's legal challenge on property tax put the local government reform initiative on standby because the revenue that it would generate was going to be the lifeblood of reform…the revenue from the tax is to be used to pay for goods and services in regional corporations…”.
He even raised the bogey that in GE2020, “the UNC will again use its 'axe the tax' slogan”. This led to headlines like – UNC’s property Tax challenge affecting local govt reform. UNC Sabotaging Local Government Reform.
Even if the UNC has a Court matter regarding the Property Tax Act, that has nothing to do with why the Local Government Reform Bill was only brought to Parliament 6 months before the end of the 2016 LG Term or why it has not yet been passed.
The Property Tax Act was amended by Government as recently as June 2018, but it makes no provision for the collection of Property Tax by LG Corporations. That Act says that ALL property Tax is to be collected by the Board of Inland Revenue and go into the Consolidated Fund.
The Local Government Reform Bill 2019 is what proposes to introduce a new Part V – Property Tax into the Municipal Corporations Act to allow Corporations to collect property tax from Residential Properties within each Corporation only. 
The Reform Bill also proposes to amend the Property Tax Act by its clause 10 to also require payment of Residential Property Tax to the Corporations and empower the Finance Minister to allow a portion of other property taxes to be collected and retained by Corporations.
So, contrary to the PM’s Platform Talk, the PNM’s assistant campaign manager was correct. The failure of the PNM to bring the LG Reform Bill to the Parliament before May 2019 an get it passed is the real reason for the non-implementation of LG Reform.
Aspects such as the Planning function and expansion of the Municipal Police have been going on.
But, because the Reform Bill has not been passed the LGE2019 will see Councillors elected into the same old un-reformed Regional Corporations.
Blaming the UNC for the PNM’s failure to act on its own promised Reform sounds pretty much like a page from the Cambridge Analytica playbook, as the PM now so often likes to refer us to.
In LGE2019, perhaps the burgesses should register their displeasure at yet another failure to deliver Local Government Reform by a third Government administration in the last decade and more and let this be a Referendum on such failure.
Perhaps, a New Slogan GE2019 - NO REFORM, NO VOTE!!!

​Clyde Weatherhead
A Citizen Fighting for
Democratic Renewal of
Our Society and Empowerment of
the People.
November 10, 2019