A real estate agent in my office said it best when I drew his attention to the news item (Ghanaweb, August 20, 2007) regarding the 19-year hiatus on property valuations by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly. “This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard”, my American friend posited.
The AMA boss, Mr. Stanley Nii Adjiri Blankson, at a ceremony to introduce the new property tax rates in Accra, intimated that the last time property valuations were done in his metropolitan area was 1988 -- 19 years ago! He then went on to confirm that even after the 1988 valuation, the “indexation” of such valuation was completed in 1995. In ordinary parlance, the recording of such valuation in an orderly fashion was completed seven years after the valuation itself! Wow! Then he went on to admit that “the review was to enable the assembly generate the necessary revenue to develop the city”. Come again, Mr. Adjiri Blankson? After 19 years, is this an epiphany from the gods of Accra or a sudden realization that, in our modern 21st century, the AMA is completely clueless about how modern cities are run? No wonder most parts of our capital city, Accra, are so filthy, so smelly, so congested and so full of traffic snarls. How in the world did the AMA get away with this dereliction of duty? How did it get away with this gross incompetence?
All over the world, from Tripoli to Johannesburg, from Toronto to New York City, from London to Paris, from Tokyo to Beijing -- management of cities is a business left in the hands of trained, dedicated professionals. The beauty, the orderliness, the safety, the cleanliness, the businesslike and bustling nature of most cities in the world today, does not just happen: It is a carefully planned, well-choreographed and well-executed operation by trained professionals who, not only know how to run a modern outfit, but also know how and where to get the necessary wherewithal to do so. In major cities all over the world today, people who own property also know that it is their civic duty to pay property taxes -- the revenue critically needed for the smooth running of a city. It is an obligation most property owners diligently discharge, knowing very well that the smooth running of their city enables their property values to appreciate and their businesses to flourish in tandem. By the same token, collection of property taxes is also an obligation professionally trained officers in city hall take and discharge very seriously. Without such revenue, a city is doomed.
Drive around any modern city in the world today and you will find over and over again that the beauty and safety of a city is truly a reflection of the work done by the trained and dedicated professionals running city hall; no question! So when a public official, who is the head of city hall, proudly tells the nation that the last time his outfit did property valuation in his metropolitan area was 19 years ago, you must start asking yourself: Would Paris, London, New York City, Toronto, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Beijing, and Rio De Janeiro look the same today if their city officials ran their cities like the AMA? Would these cities be the beauties we know today if, for 19 years, their city managers abandoned their duty of collecting property taxes based on timely valuations within their jurisdictions? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that real estate appreciates in value over time. The land grab in Accra today speaks volumes about the primacy of that reality. It is because of this phenomenon that every city hall or local administration establishes an assessor’s office, whose job it is to establish valuations on property in a timely fashion, to enable the city generate the much-needed property tax revenue. Year-in-year-out, property values are revised and revisited as economic and social activities change over time and location in various parts of a city. No wonder in my adopted city of Los Angeles, a high-rise office building in downtown LA could pay as much as one million dollars in property taxes annually, while Mr. Jesus Gonzales in Pacoima, a suburb, pays only one thousand dollars for his little condo. That is how it came to be that in Los Angeles county, the annual assessment roll consists of more than 2.6 million assessments of real estate, personal property and fixtures used by businesses, in addition to boats and aircrafts. Each property is listed by owner, location, and assessed value. Indeed, the total assessed value of all properties in Los Angeles county for the year 2006 assessment roll is $962 billion. At a 1% annual property tax rate, Mr. Adjiri Blankson can easily see why Los Angeles is such a beautiful city and our own capital city, Accra, is lagging so much behind. Did it have to take the Accra Metropolitan Assembly 19 years to wise up?
A real estate agent in my office said it best when I drew his attention to the news item (Ghanaweb, August 20, 2007) regarding the 19-year hiatus on property valuations by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly. “This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard”, my American friend posited.
The AMA boss, Mr. Stanley Nii Adjiri Blankson, at a ceremony to introduce the new property tax rates in Accra, intimated that the last time property valuations were done in his metropolitan area was 1988 -- 19 years ago! He then went on to confirm that even after the 1988 valuation, the “indexation” of such valuation was completed in 1995. In ordinary parlance, the recording of such valuation in an orderly fashion was completed seven years after the valuation itself! Wow! Then he went on to admit that “the review was to enable the assembly generate the necessary revenue to develop the city”. Come again, Mr. Adjiri Blankson? After 19 years, is this an epiphany from the gods of Accra or a sudden realization that, in our modern 21st century, the AMA is completely clueless about how modern cities are run? No wonder most parts of our capital city, Accra, are so filthy, so smelly, so congested and so full of traffic snarls. How in the world did the AMA get away with this dereliction of duty? How did it get away with this gross incompetence?
All over the world, from Tripoli to Johannesburg, from Toronto to New York City, from London to Paris, from Tokyo to Beijing -- management of cities is a business left in the hands of trained, dedicated professionals. The beauty, the orderliness, the safety, the cleanliness, the businesslike and bustling nature of most cities in the world today, does not just happen: It is a carefully planned, well-choreographed and well-executed operation by trained professionals who, not only know how to run a modern outfit, but also know how and where to get the necessary wherewithal to do so. In major cities all over the world today, people who own property also know that it is their civic duty to pay property taxes -- the revenue critically needed for the smooth running of a city. It is an obligation most property owners diligently discharge, knowing very well that the smooth running of their city enables their property values to appreciate and their businesses to flourish in tandem. By the same token, collection of property taxes is also an obligation professionally trained officers in city hall take and discharge very seriously. Without such revenue, a city is doomed.
Drive around any modern city in the world today and you will find over and over again that the beauty and safety of a city is truly a reflection of the work done by the trained and dedicated professionals running city hall; no question! So when a public official, who is the head of city hall, proudly tells the nation that the last time his outfit did property valuation in his metropolitan area was 19 years ago, you must start asking yourself: Would Paris, London, New York City, Toronto, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Beijing, and Rio De Janeiro look the same today if their city officials ran their cities like the AMA? Would these cities be the beauties we know today if, for 19 years, their city managers abandoned their duty of collecting property taxes based on timely valuations within their jurisdictions? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that real estate appreciates in value over time. The land grab in Accra today speaks volumes about the primacy of that reality. It is because of this phenomenon that every city hall or local administration establishes an assessor’s office, whose job it is to establish valuations on property in a timely fashion, to enable the city generate the much-needed property tax revenue. Year-in-year-out, property values are revised and revisited as economic and social activities change over time and location in various parts of a city. No wonder in my adopted city of Los Angeles, a high-rise office building in downtown LA could pay as much as one million dollars in property taxes annually, while Mr. Jesus Gonzales in Pacoima, a suburb, pays only one thousand dollars for his little condo. That is how it came to be that in Los Angeles county, the annual assessment roll consists of more than 2.6 million assessments of real estate, personal property and fixtures used by businesses, in addition to boats and aircrafts. Each property is listed by owner, location, and assessed value. Indeed, the total assessed value of all properties in Los Angeles county for the year 2006 assessment roll is $962 billion. At a 1% annual property tax rate, Mr. Adjiri Blankson can easily see why Los Angeles is such a beautiful city and our own capital city, Accra, is lagging so much behind. Did it have to take the Accra Metropolitan Assembly 19 years to wise up? 
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