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Tubigon now 1st class town

Written by anyajulia on 27 December 2008

TUBIGON, under Mayor Luna Piezas, jumps from its last classification as 3rd to first class town, an achievement that would probably go in local history as rare.

Tubigon shares with Ubay barging into becoming Bohol’s first class towns, a position then solely occupied by Talibon.

Then earning a little less than P44 million four to five years ago, the town’s income leaped astronomically in the past three years to an average of P55 million, reported town treasurer Servanda Salomon.

Records bare that Tubigon has earned an average of P63.361 in the past 3 years, catapulting it to the top position.

On the development, local tax observers see that the dynamic local leadership and its improvement of the town market is instrumental in the increase of income.

While many Tubigon residents speculate about increased taxes to maintain the status, Salomon said that aside from the real property taxes, which they do not have any control, municipal taxes remain the same, or until a new tax ordinance is passed.

“There is no upgrading yet of local taxes, except the real property tax, which is revised every three years, she said.
We are expecting a revision of municipal tax ordinances in 2010, as mandated by the local government code, she added.

Wanting to downplay the fear of tax rate jumps, the town bagman said the biggest impact of the re-classification is increase in paychecks for local employees.

“The reclassification basically affects the salaries of local employees; the salary standardization would now be using the first class bracket following salary standardization,” she bared.

The Bureau of Local Government and Finance (BLGF) in its memorandum of circular no 01-M (15)-08 dated November 20, 2008 has issued the re-classification of Bohol municipalities, effective July 29, 2008.

According to BLGF, class brackets are based on average annual income in three years.

First class towns should have an average of P55M or more, 2nd class towns earning P45M to P54M average.
Third class towns earn P35M to P44M; fourth class: P25M to P34M; fifth class P15M to P24M and sixth class towns earn below P15M. (rachiu/PIA)

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