?Most back­ward, op­pres­sive and cal­lous. That's how Op­po­si­tion sen­a­tor Wade Mark de­scribes the pro­posed in­creas­es in prop­er­ty tax­es.

Mark, a for­mer trade union­ist, said this while con­tribut­ing to the 2010 Ap­pro­pri­a­tion Bill, which was pre­sent­ed for de­bate ear­li­er by Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance Mar­i­ano Browne. Mark warned that the in­creas­es in prop­er­ty tax­es would lead to:

�2 an in­crease in the rents for all ten­ants;

�2 a re­duc­tion in busi­ness com­pet­i­tive­ness; and

�2 an in­crease in the cost of liv­ing.

He added that the mea­sure would al­so neg­a­tive­ly af­fect pen­sion­ers and in­di­vid­u­als on fixed in­comes. "This in­sen­si­tive, rep­re­hen­si­ble, ob­jec­tion­able and dis­grace­ful new tax will re­sult in one's dis­pos­able in­come be­ing fur­ther erod­ed," Mark said. He wad­ed in­to the Gov­ern­ment, say­ing the tax in­crease was "in­equitable and will dis­cour­age fur­ther con­struc­tion of homes by pri­vate in­di­vid­u­als and prop­er­ty de­vel­op­ers.

"The prop­er­ty tax in the hands of an abu­sive gov­ern­ment could lead to seg­re­ga­tion in com­mu­ni­ties and the de­vel­op­ment of ghet­tos...If one is un­able to pay this oner­ous prop­er­ty tax, the gov­ern­ment can seize one's prop­er­ty and put it up for sale," Mark said. He al­so said that based on the Gov­ern­ment's poor man­age­ment of the econ­o­my, the coun­try could soon have to go to the In­ter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund (IMF) for fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance. Ear­li­er, Browne de­fend­ed the Gov­ern­ment's de­ci­sion to in­crease prop­er­ty tax.