Mayor plans to hang tarp banners of 2012 budget around Cebu City

Let it be known by all,” said Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.

He ordered  staff to prepare tarpaulin banners explaining highlights of the draft 2012 budget that he submitted for approval to a critical City Council.

The banners will be posted in strategic sites like Fuente Osmeña circle.

The mayor is betting on full dissemination “so that the people will know that our administration is trying to pursue all the projects that we need.”

Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young called the plan a “trick.”

“His purpose is to pressure the council to approve his budget. But how can we do that when it’s not clear what’s the source of funds?” Young told Cebu Daily News.

“But people will see through that.  They will understand that the role  of the council is to scrutinize,”  said Young.

The budget needs to be approved before Dec. 31.

While the P11.8-billion executive budget allots the biggest share or 64 percent to public services and economic services, the  mayor’s critics question whether he has sound financial support for it.

Over half of the budget is set aside for public services,  P4.2 billion or 37 percent; and economic services,   P3.1 billion or 27 percent.

Debt servicing will cost P580.9 million or 5 percent of the total.

Mayor Rama said funding should not be a problem since there are several ways for the city to raise it such as more aggressive tax collection and selling reclamation lots in the South Road Properties (SRP).

“If the revenues are not enough, what is wrong with having tax declarations corrected?” he said yesterday.

“What’s wrong with having to sell the SRP? We don’t have to sell all lots anyway,” he said.

He said he wants tarpaulin banners hung around the city to show a breakdown of the proposed 2012 budget for ordinary Cebuanos to read.

“There is no limit to dreaming because everything starts with a dream,” he said in a press conference yesterday.

Last Monday, Mayor Rama met department heads and told them to prepare to defend the executive budget in ongoing hearings of the council.

To support the proposed P11.8-billion budget, about P4.8 billion will come from taxes and other revenues identified by City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo.

The rest is supposed to come from whatever the city earns in economic enterprises (P4 billion), the opening of a credit line  (P2 billion) and lot sales (P1 billion).

Vice Mayor Young clarified that the council is not opposed to the mayor’s 2012 budget but wants to ensure it is propped up by sufficient funds next year.

Young said the treasurer, Camarillo, was teary eyed during one of their conversations where she admitted that she was only “forced” to certify that her office would raise the funds needed for the P11.8-billion budget.

“She told me that she was just pressured,” Young said.

Young said the mayor could draft any figures that he wanted for his 2012 budget, “but it’s the council’s role to scrutinize it.”

“How can we approve a budget that is without a clear source of funds?” said Young.

Last week, Camarillo and City budget officer Nelfa Briones were invited by the council to discuss how far the city has gone in meeting this year’s current budget of P4.5 billion.

Camarillo said the city government may fall short by at least P800 million.

On Thursday, both officials will be invited again by the council to identify fund sources for the  proposed 2012 budget.