URDANETA CITY – With its promising economy as the melting pot and center of commerce and education in eastern Pangasinan, Urdaneta City is now ready to jump from second to first class, besting other cities in the province and in the Ilocos region.

An elated Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. announced that the city last year posted an income of P440 million, from local taxes and Internal Revenue Allotment, excluding P123 million it realized from its own City of Urdaneta University (CUU).

The city-operated CUU, a model for all Local Government Units, is virtually the goose that lays the golden eggs for Urdaneta as it earns extra income for the city’s general fund.

Observers keenly watching Urdaneta’s phenomenal rise in the economic totem pole in Pangasinan said with more economic opportunities coming its way soon, the city’s first class status may now really be in the bag.

“We might come to that, but let me clarify that we are not competing with other cities in Pangasinan,” laughed Mayor Perez, referring to Dagupan, San Carlos and Alaminos cities.

Perez revealed that due to sound financial management and moderation in expense, the city was able to realize an unprecedented P44 million surplus from its budget last year.

In 2005, Urdaneta was tagged by the Commission on Audit as having the biggest in savings and the lowest in expenditures that year among all cities in Region 1.

Now on his third term as mayor of Urdaneta, Perez said that although they earn more now than before, he sees to it that they come up with a very conservative budget each year in order to prevent the city from incurring a deficit.

When Perez assumed as city mayor in 2001 after completing three terms in Congress, he was shocked to find out that the city had maturing loans with various financial institutions almost up to its neck.

With the city’s finance in disarray, he put it back to shape by ordering a strict policy of belt-tightening.

With a heavy heart, he was compelled to order the laying off of casual employees just for the city to be able to pay its obligations with the banks.

These efforts, complemented by vigorous tax collections, enabled the city to write off all its loans with different financial institutions in less than three years.

Perez foresees the opening of the high-rise Building B of the public market financed by a new loan of P170 million from the Development Bank of the Philippines to further boost economic opportunities in his city.

Building B will complement Building A, also high-rise and built two years earlier through self-help, as additional attractions for investors who may want to expand to the city.

Building A was financed by joint contributions from Rep. Mark Cojuangco of the fifth district of P80 million and P15 million from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, both of which were complemented by local funds of P60 million.

Both Building A and B of the public market, designed to have pay parking areas in their third and fourth floors, assure enough stalls for any body who wants to do business in the city.