Ch­agua­nas may­or Or­lan­do Nages­sar is ad­vo­cat­ing for a raise in salaries for elect­ed lo­cal gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Speak­ing with the T&T Guardian, Nages­sar, who heads the as­so­ci­a­tion of lo­cal gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives, said most col­lect a "mea­gre" $3,500 month­ly stipend along with oth­er small al­lowances.

He said may­ors and chair­men of re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions re­ceive around $10,000 month­ly and he would like to see the Salaries Re­view Com­mis­sion dou­ble these fig­ures since most lo­cal gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives stretched their stipends to make ends meet while ser­vic­ing their con­stituents.

Nages­sar said he hoped that the 2012-2013 Bud­get would see a re­turn to the old sys­tem of pay­ment of rates and tax­es to the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion which was sus­pend­ed when a new prop­er­ty tax sys­tem was pro­posed by the for­mer PNM regime more than two years ago.

The may­or said un­der the old sys­tem, the bor­ough col­lect­ed $10 mil­lion an­nu­al­ly. He said this fig­ure could cross $20 mil­lion if rein­tro­duced. He said the much need­ed funds could be used for de­vel­op­ment of in­fra­struc­ture and the de­vel­op­ment of roads and sport­ing fa­cil­i­ties in the bor­ough.