City budget proposes largest municipal property tax hike in at least 30 years

The city has unveiled its proposed four-year budget. It includes the largest municipal property tax increase for Calgary homeowners in at least three decades. The city is proposing a 15% property tax hike next year, followed by increases of 10%, 7.7% and 6% in the following years. Those numbers are not final, and the mayor says he wants to bring them down significantly. Largely, it's going to be holding our police chief accountable, our fire chief accountable, really grilling our city administrators on the need for specific capital and infrastructure projects. The budget also proposes four straight years of utility rate increases, between $16 and $30 per month. Combined with the property tax hikes, the city estimates the typical homeowner would end up paying about $200 more per month by 2030. Nobody's happy with that. I understand we have infrastructure deficits, we have some things we have to pay to catch up on, but we do have to look internally then. City officials say the budget package is based on council's direction and what they heard from the public. The Calgarians have said they want reliable, sustainable infrastructure. They want safer communities and safer streets, they want dependable transit, they want to improve parks and public spaces and public facilities. This is what this budget delivers. The budget includes a proposed $5.5 billion for water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure. The Ward 10 Councillor doesn't think Calgarians will accept a 15% hike but says the city needs to catch up on those investments. I think if we could get to somewhere around It's around just below 10%. We could start moving the needle on addressing some of our infrastructure deficit. The budget also proposes giving the police service an extra $55 million next year. That's just for operating costs, and there would be tens of millions more in the following three years. It also proposes increasing their capital budget by 73%. Another driver is Calgary Transit, with an additional $67 million next year for day-to-day operations. It, too, would get more funds in the following years. The proposed budget for transit includes hundreds of millions to buy new buses and the funding to extend the Blue Line LRT another stop from Saddletown Station to 88th Avenue Northeast. To help cover the costs, the budget calls for $0.15 increases to transit fares. Other proposed investments include more than $400 million for pavement rehabilitation and $280 million in new money for rec center projects. Council will have a chance to make changes when budget deliberations get underway on November 23rd. Brendan Coulter, CBC News, Calgary City Hall.