Marigot: --- President of the MOCSAM Julien Gumbs is once again sounding the alarm about the possible road tax. Gumbs in an exclusive interview with SMN News said that while the window that is supposed to be collecting the road tax is closed since October 2009 to date the Collectivity and its representatives has not seen it fit to update its population on the reason why they stopped collecting the tax which is supposed to be used for road developments.
Gumbs said the MOCSAM over the past years have been protesting the illegality of the road tax and to date the Collectivity cannot get a "decree de application" from the State Council. He said the MOCSAM filed two cases against the Collectivity on this road tax and the threatening letters that was sent to people who did not pay the taxes. He said to date the court has not ruled on either of the cases because they are awaiting a response from the COM about the letters they sent to several residents of St. Martin who did not comply with the payment. "The last time I heard from the administrative courts was sometime in February 2010 and the judge said he is still waiting on the COM to respond. My hope is that the courts would render its decision before 2012 so that those currently in office would answer for their wrong doings," Gumbs said he wants to people to see that elected officials cannot do as they like because they were elected to office. He said elected officials have to also abide by the laws like everyone else. The MOCSAM president is calling on the St. Martin community to remain vigilante and they look out for their own interests.
Gumbs said that based on the news report he understood that the Collectivity has abolished the road tax system they implemented in 2008 and they are now working on something new which would involve license plates. Gumbs further explained that the fact the Collectivity has aborted its former procedure, which is still in process shows that they are in bad light, but has failed to admit such.
Gumbs made clear that the MOCSAM is not against the road tax since they do agree that the people of St. Martin has to contribute to the island's development, however, the MOCSAM is against the illegal aspect of this tax. He said one of the requests made by him was to bring back this road tax plan to the drawing board and to do it right since those in the COM rushed it off from day one without conducting a study.
Gumbs warned that if the COM pushes its new format without holding a debate that would also include the MOCSAM they would be vigilante and would continue to protest if it is needed. Gumbs said one of his fears is that those in charge would bring this to the council a week or two before they are ready to launch and the council would again vote without perusing the format and the legality of the taxes. Gumbs said he is of the opinion that the COM should give back those persons who paid the tax their monies since it was not acceptable to the State.
SMN News contacted Christophe Coelho of the Prefecture for an update on the road tax procedures. Coelho said the Collectivity does have the tax and road competences and they indeed voted the road tax ordinance in 2008. Coelho said the COM could do whatever they want with taxes however; they do have to comply with the State (Controle de legality).
As for the road taxes he said that ordinance was not fully completed when it was voted in the territorial council. Coelho said the COM had to make sure they fully outlined the penalties that could be taken against vehicle users who did not comply with the payment of the road tax (vignette). He said because the territorial council did not do anything regarding the penal section and the gendarmes could not conduct any controls if that was not included. Coelho said the COM had to get the State Council to agree with the road tax ordinance before the gendarmes could have acted or begin controlling.
This process he said is very long and he is of the of opinion that the procedure is still underway but the COM has decided not to wait on the State Council but to come up with another idea where they would involve the penal section. He made clear that so far, the Prefecture does not have anything on this new project and it is yet to go before the territorial council.
As for the monies that were collected from the sale of the vignette in 2008 and 2009 he said it was deposited in the Collectivity's account.
According to the COM when they launched the road tax project in 2008 they said the monies collected would go towards the building of new roads but to date no new roads have been built.
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