THE Cagayan de Oro City Council approved Monday, December 19, the P4.5 billion of the proposed P5.4 billion budget for 2017, the biggest annual budget yet of the administration of Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno.
“Before we approved this budget, it has gone through thorough deliberations, and about sa slash, nakita sa finance committee nga naay dapat kuhaan (the slash, the finance committee saw something should be taken), and we have to respect that,” Vice Mayor Rainier Joaquin Uy said.
The City Council voted 12-3, with one abstention.
Those who voted for the budget approval were councilors Teodolfu Lao Jr., Edna Dahino, Oscar Salcedo, Zaldy Ocon, Ian Nacaya, Reuben Daba, Jay Pascual, Malou Gaane, Romeo Calizo, George Goking, Annie Daba, and Suzzette Magtajas-Daba, while those who expressed opposition were Lordan Suan, Leon Gan, and Nadya Emano-Elipe.
Councilor Dometio Acenas abstained, while Councilor Yan Lam Lim was absent.
City Councilor Edna Dahino, chair of the committee on finance, said the slashed P1 billion is supposedly for programs which are not considered urgent and could be approved later on.
Dahino said the City Government will not impose higher tax rates to the businessmen next year as a result of the increased budget.
“Definitely dili mang-impose ug higher tax rates, I told personally the mayor nga wala gayud dapat, mo-base lang ta sa atong revenue code, mo-agi gayud ang tanang proposal for increase sa City Council (we will not impose higher tax rates, I personally told the mayor that it will not be imposed, we will only base it on the revenue code, all the proposal will go through the City Council) and we won’t approve all of it. Definitely no loans, no increase on tax rates, just strict collection of taxes,” she said.
Mayor Oscar Moreno, for his part, said he is “positive” from the very beginning that the proposed budget would be approved with the new City Council.
Moreno also reiterated the assurance of other councilors that there will be no higher tax rates imposition.
“We believe that they are willing to take the position with us, it's an ambitious budget but we want to do it to push ourselves and move forward, and aim higher. We want to move forward that would put Cagayan de Oro a more competitive position,” Moreno said.
“It’s not as if it’s my budget, this is for the people,” he said.
“There was a concern raised that a P5 billion budget might trigger increase of tax rates or a possible imposition of new taxes, but I assure the City Council that we will not impose new taxes and we will not increase the tax rates, there will be improvement on the tax collection but of course it's our duty to do that,” Moreno added.
In 2014, the proposed budget was P2.64 billion but only P2.31 billion was approved. The succeeding year also showed a P1.72 billion cut with only P3.08 billion approved from the P3.8 billion proposal.
A P4.8-billion budget for 2016 was also proposed but only P2.4-billion budget was approved by the previous City Council.
