Calgary Minute: Tax Hikes, Tax Shifts, and a Loss Of Trust

Calgary Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Calgary politics

This Week In Calgary:

• This Monday at 9:30 am, there will be a Combined Meeting of Council. The docket includes neighbourhood speed limits, low-income transit passes, public sector pensions, water fluoridation, a large number of land-use amendments, and more.
  
  
• On Thursday, there will be a Planning Commission meeting. The Committee will be using this time to discuss yet more land-use amendments. 
  
  
• Notably absent from this week's agenda are two meetings which have been cancelled - the Standing Policy Committee on Utilities and Corporate Services and the Standing Policy Committee meeting on Transportation and Transit.

Last Week In Calgary:

• Last Monday, Council debated hiking residential property taxes for next year. Councillors were presented with three potential options by City staff and, in a shock to no one that reads our weekly updates, not a single scenario involved a tax reduction. Council still doesn't get that Calgarians are done being treated like cash-cows.
  
  
• In a confounding bid that would turn business owners against their customers, the Calgary Chamber of Commerce is ramping up its campaign for a tax-shift - shifting rising business taxes onto residential taxpayers instead. We agree that business taxes are too high, but not because residential taxes are too low! Spending in Calgary has drastically outpaced growth and inflation over the last decade. Businesses and residents should be allied in their demands for Council to reign in its spendthrift ways and cut taxes for both businesses and residents.
  
  
• In more unsurprising news, a survey commissioned by the City itself was released showing that fewer than 1 in 4 businesses trust City Council. Calgarian's opinion of the quality of life in the City is also at a near 10-year low. It's no wonder given Council's inability to reduce inefficiencies and say no to luxuries. Unfortunately for Calgarians, many businesses have already voted with their feet by leaving or closing down, worsening an already difficult economic situation.
  

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