Municipal money vs state money

Since my election to preside over the Municipal Council of Ghobeiry, I have always had, in many cases, to explain to the citizen the difference between municipal funds and Lebanese state funds. Every day, a taxpayer comes to discuss the issue of the cancellation of municipal taxes, and that the state does not deserve to collect municipal taxes, and asks the mayor to help him evade municipal taxes under various pretexts and pretexts, the least of which is that “the state is robbing us and state officials are wasting public money. Why do we pay municipal taxes? ”It takes a long time to convince the citizen to pay the municipality’s obligations.

Municipal funds are limited to the following resources:
Fees collected by the state and public institutions for the benefit of municipalities, such as the electricity, telephone and real estate departments.
• Construction license fees and rental fees, sidewalks and sewers
• Fees for licenses, restoration permits and occupation of public properties
Percentage of traffic logs, etc.
Consequently, any shortage in these imports reduces the capacity of the municipality to pay the salaries and costs of execution of works and projects or any type of business or purchase. When this financial liquidity is lost, business in the municipality stops and falls into deficit. The Municipalities Law 118/77 did not foresee any means to obtain other resources through loans from the State or from external sources.
Today, the responsibility lies with the head of the executive authority and the municipal council in terms of transparency in the management of the municipality’s finances, improving trust in non-waste and organizing disbursement according to priorities within projects and the needs of residents within the municipal area.
Through the experience of four and a half years, I know many taxpayers who took the initiative to pay the obligations of the municipality as soon as they saw some of the achievements that they were demanding or achievements that caught their attention and preferred their presence within the neighborhood in the one that lives like a garden in the neighborhood, some trees, a green island, a health center. , Parking, sidewalk maintenance … an indication or a traffic light.
The honesty and transparency of the municipal work is a basis to activate the collection and a reason for the citizen to understand that the money entered into the municipal fund is money for their direct service.

* Mayor of Ghobeiry

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