Calgary council looks to axe 2017 tax increase, finds million in savings
City politicians also aim to reduce fees in face of prolonged economic downturn
City council will discuss making adjustments to its current budget next week, including a rebate aimed at eliminating a 1.5 per cent property tax hike. It also announced big savings from its zero-based reviews of departments.
The city wants to use savings in order to freeze the tax rate, but council is also being asked to freeze a number of fees in order to help Calgarians deal with the current economic climate.
A citizen satisfaction survey shows that while Calgarians are generally pleased with their quality of life, their tolerance for any tax increases is low.
Coun. Andre Chabot said the city is trying to do its part to help people, but he's not sure the provincial government will freeze the education portion of property taxes — which makes up 40 per cent of the tax bill.
"What we'll see from the province is going to be a requisition on education tax, but there's other taxes that they're proposing, such as the carbon tax, and so those will be compounded to some of their increases," he said.
"I think people will not be very happy when they see their utility bills in January."
Concern over downtown vacancies
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said proposed changes to the city budget would benefit Calgarians in four major ways if approved by council.
"Number 1: significant tax relief. Number 2: fee relief in a number of areas. Number 3: investments in initiatives targetted to the areas of greatest need. And Number 4: a brand new way of thinking about our capital budget," he said.
Chabot, however, said he's also concerned that many businesses outside the downtown could see big hikes in their tax bills next year, due to shortfalls resulting from high vacancy rates downtown.
Zero-based reviews
On the plus side, the city said its zero-based reviews have resulted in annual savings of $50 million after examining about three-quarters of the city's spending.
The reviews are designed to examine what city departments do and see if they can do that work better or cheaper.
"It was a day to declare victory," Nenshi told a council committee Tuesday morning. "It's a program that's worked incredibly well — even better than I had anticipated when we designed it in the first place — so I'm very, very happy."
City manager Jeff Fielding said he doesn't expect to see huge additional savings resulting from the final reviews, but he is anticipating that key questions will be asked about some city services, and whether the city should continue to provide them.
"I'll use one — it's always a controversy, but golf courses — golf courses we provide. Is there a reason for us to stay in the golf business? There may be, there may not be, depending on the council of the day. So those are the types of things we would revisit," he said.
Fielding said the next zero-based review reports will be discussed by city council next year.
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