As budget talks continue for a second day at city hall, five Calgary councillors say they are coming forward with more than 20 amendments to lower next year’s property tax increase.
Couns. Jennifer Wyness, Dan McLean, Terry Wong and Andre Chabot are part of the plan, along with Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp who says what they are looking at could save $70 to $75 million in operating costs, bringing down the tax increase.
“We are still working on some amendments,” says Sharp. “Some of our colleagues still haven’t sent in some of their stuff yet. This is a preliminary finding.”
She claims none of the proposed 20 amendments will impact the city’s frontline services.
“We went deeper in and said what are things that won’t impact Calgarians right upfront.”
The proposed 3.6 per cent tax increase would mean an extra $8.37 a month in property taxes for a single-family home, and an additional $5.09 a month in waste and recycling.
One amendment put forward by the group of councillors calls for consolidating the chief administrative officer and chief operating officer to just one position. Though the Mayor Jyoti Gondek says council can’t actually make that decision.
“We can provide our perspective and our opinion, we can definitely talk to the chief administrative officer at any time,” says Gondek. “But we do not make decisions about how the structure of this organization works.”
McLean says he wants to get to a zero per cent increase, but isn’t sure that’s feasible.
“I don’t know if we have the will on council, or enough amendments to find that,” he says. “We spent, in the last few years, $100 million in climate initiatives. That alone would bring you down to zero.”
According to the release, Chabot and Wong would like to scrap a 1 per cent tax shift from non-residential to residential properties.
Another proposed amendment calls for easier to understand budget documents.
“This budget was actually less informative than last year’s budget,” says Sharp. “I had to go back to last year’s budget to find numbers to use this year.”
Gondek defended the revised budget on Monday and said any further cuts would be detrimental to transit, infrastructure and maintenance.
Members of council were originally told back in September that the projected tax increase would be 4.5 per cent. Gondek said she wasn’t pleased with that hike, emphasizing that council direction was to hold the line at 3.6 per cent.
This week’s discussions are part of the city’s mid-cycle adjustment to the 2023-2026 budget. The proposed amendments will be debated throughout the week.
Tuesday’s budget debate involves organizations like the fire department and Calgary police giving their presentations and being asked questions about what funding they are asking for.