Santa Barbara approves P138M budget for 2012

By Mortz C. Ortigoza
SANTA BARBARA – This first class town is richer compared to other Pangasinan towns in terms of appropriation for next year..
According to Mayor Carlito Zaplan this town has just approved a budget of P138 million for 2012.
The towns of Lingayen and Calasiao have a budget for the same year of more or less P130 million and P132 million, respectively.
The mayor said this higher budget happened because of the two major sources of taxpayers here.
He said the processing plants of Ginebra San Miguel based in Brgy. Tebag West and RC Cola in Brgy. Marunong pay P21 million and roughly P8 million business taxes.
These do not include the Real Property Tax. RC Cola paid P600,000 when it has not constructed theplant yet. Then there is a building tax, Zaplan said.
The mayor explained that the budget for 2012 should be P145 million but after he heard about the reduction of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) intended for his town, he and his officials adopted the appropriation of P138 million.
He said that there would be no lay-off of workers here just like what happened in nearby Urdaneta City because of the slash on the IRA.