Hello Neighbours,
Great Neighbourhoods is the culmination of everything I’ve learned about cities from 20 years of study and practice focused into a 5-point mission. Point 4 of Great Neighbourhoods is all about the math. At the end of November City Council will be delving into our budget, and we need to address the Tax Shift.
There are 3 things we can actively do to solve the Tax Shift:
- Reduce the cost of the services by driving efficiencies;
- Reduce the number and quality of services we provide Calgarians; and/or,
- Pay more taxes to cover the $250 million hole in our revenues that the downtown used to pay.
Since the downturn Council has been laser-focused on transforming efficiencies at City Hall. Now, the debate will be on our remaining two options: do we follow the Provincial Government into an age of service-cutting austerity; or, do we have a conversation about more equitably sharing the responsibility for the services?
For the last year, I’ve engaged whomever I meet in a conversation about taxes. Here are some cost comparisons: the average house price in Calgary is roughly ~$500,000. That house pays ~$2100 in property taxes. In my conversation with Cathy Heron, the Mayor of St Albert, she told me that their $500,000 homes pay around $3400 a year in property taxes. A fiscal hawk first term Councillor from Leduc named Jonathan Jacobson was stunned, there an average home worth $430,000 pays $3800 in tax.
If Council were to fully shift the responsibility for the hole in our downtown onto the residential base, the average house in Calgary would pay $2500 a year in taxes. We wouldn’t have to close pools, reduce transit hours, cheap out on maintaining our road system or put on hold the delivery of more parks and recreation facilities, etc. I think we need to talk about that.
