Council asks to slash budget wish list to avoid 14% tax hike

Calgary city council and administration are going back to the drawing board as they try to balance the growing city's service demands with a reasonable tax hike.

A special closed-door council meeting Tuesday was supposed to determine the city's operating budget and set the property tax rate for the next three-year cycle of 2009-2011.

But when council and city staff heard their current wish list would result in a tax increase of at least 14 per cent, the mayor asked administration to re-examine the demands.

"If you added up all the numbers that are on the board and all of the [demands are] in the 14 per cent plus range ... that's unacceptable in this community," said Mayor Dave Bronconnier.

With Calgary's population forecast to swell by 100,000 by 2011, improving protective services with 400 more police officers, 138 firefighters and 140 paramedics tops the list of council's priorities.

"There is no other Canadian city in Canadian history that has experienced the kind of boom that this community has in the last decade," said Bronconnier.

Council gave city managers until November to pare down the wish list and take another look at how to make service demands reality without a tax hike of 14 per cent.

"I think all departments should be prepared to look at their budget and see what they can take out of it," suggested Ald. Ric McIver.

City staff must separate wants from needs

Ald. Bob Hawkesworth said council and administration have a tough job ahead to separate the wants from the needs.
 
"There is sticker shock and a desire to see if there isn't some further work that could be done to strike a balance between cost and quality of service," he said Tuesday.

His colleague, Diane Colley-Urquhart, said the problem could be fixed if the province allowed the city to keep some of the property taxes handed over every year for education.

"If we could have more of the property tax which Calgarians pay, we wouldn't have a problem at all," she said.