People won't resent tax if it helps
No citizen likes tax but if the city corporations are sensitive and spend the money for betterment of its dwellers, people will also welcome the increase of taxes, according to a former US city mayor.
“If we [local government] are sensitive to not wasting money and making a very well thought-out case for things that need to be done then the public will support you,” said Ralph Becker, former mayor of Salt Lake City, the capital of the US state of Utah.
He gave an interview to The Daily Star during his recent visit to Dhaka, and shared his experience and suggestions for the mayors of the city corporations and municipalities of Bangladesh.
Ralph had been the mayor of Salt Lake City for two consecutive terms (2008-2012 and 2012-2016).
He was in town to attend a two-day Cities Forum where mayors and councillors of cities and municipalities of Bangladesh shared their experiences and discussed their problems. The World Bank organised it in a Dhaka hotel on October 28-29, with mayors from some foreign cities attending the programme as guests.
At the conference, most of the mayors of Bangladesh expressed their frustration over fund constraint, which was also noticed by Ralph.
The mayors here feel a lot of frustration that they do not have finances and ability to raise money to do what they need to do; so they just hang on to what they have rather than making improvement, observed Ralph.
He urged the mayors to come up with concrete plans and approaches to the government and aid agencies.
“My experience says that every major project that I took as mayor and I saw this from other mayors around the country that if you decide what is best for the community and you put together a good plan and show determination, others will surely help you.”
Sharing his experience, he said that when he was first elected in 2008, the USA was under the grip of a great recession.
“Our revenue for the city took a nosedive. In Salt Lake we relied on property taxes and sales taxes. These are our primary sources of revenue. Both went down,” said Ralph.
“I developed an entire agenda that includes social justice in housing, better use of energy and protecting environment and revitalizing downtown. I really worked across the board on things that I thought would help improve the city.”
Acknowledging that he knew very little about Dhaka, Ralph said he had learnt the capital city remained bogged down with traffic congestion and pollution, among other problems.
“One of the things that I believe is we can find and talk about options of solutions for problems. But every community, group of communities and people who live here need to decide what are best for them. Then you need to go and find resources.”
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