Cities: "Tiburon cannot be run like Pétion-Ville," says Secretary of State Sharinah Lochard, who wants to overhaul Haiti's territorial organization

Haiti's Secretary of State for Local Government, Sharinah Lochard, says the country still runs its cities under outdated laws, and is calling for a new territorial organization and better-funded municipalities. She was speaking on November 3 on Magik 9, for World Cities Day, observed on October 31, Le Nouvelliste reports.

She says the law has not kept up with the growth of cities. "Port-au-Prince, Delmas and Pétion-Ville are run exactly like the Cayemite Islands, even though it is a metropolis," she said, according to the newspaper. She criticizes a one-size-fits-all model for every municipality and proposes distinguishing small, medium and large cities, with different statuses.

149 cities, little planning

Haiti had 52 cities at independence; it now has 149, most of which were never planned, according to the secretary of state. Some are former military posts; others became municipalities so they could have a member of parliament. She names Cabaret and Belladère among the few planned towns and says there has been no major planning for at least forty years. Some rural sections, such as Tête-à-Bœuf, are home to about 100,000 people, which revives the debate, still without consensus, over turning them into municipalities.

She acknowledges that the Interior Ministry has "not reached the level we wanted" in strengthening town halls, and regrets that with each change of administration "we always seem to start from scratch." Ahead of the elections, the ministry is working with mayors' federations so that studies on urbanization, markets and traffic are available to candidates.

Local taxes and the new Tax Code

The new Tax Code, in force since October 1, 2026, has changed local taxation, according to Sharinah Lochard. Local governments rely on local taxes, fees and a transfer from the State through a fund managed by the ministry, whose management has been criticized as opaque, she acknowledged. Only municipalities collect local taxes, including the business license tax and the property tax. The building census on which that tax is based should be carried out regularly but is not, she admitted. Of 149 municipalities, 100 have already submitted their budgets, she said.