Breadcrumb Trail Links
NewsLocal News
Calgary city council votes 9-6 in favour of 2024 budget adjustments, which include shifting more of the tax burden onto residential ratepayers
Article content
Average Calgary homeowners can expect a $16 monthly increase on their property tax bill next year, after city council approved the 2024 budget adjustments on Wednesday.
After three days of deliberations that included a day of public hearings and a day-long question-and-answer session with city officials, council voted 9-6 in favour of the budget adjustments, which call for a five per cent property tax increase in 2024 — an increase from the 3.4 per cent hike council approved last year.
Advertisement 2
Article content
Article content
The higher tax hike is due to 28 new investment priorities the city recommended funding in 2024, particularly in areas like public safety and affordable housing.
Bringing the tax increase up to 7.8 per cent is a one per cent increase in the residential property tax share.
Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the updated budget sends a signal that Calgary desperately needs more services and that other levels of government need to step up more. She said the city has been cutting and finding Band-aid solutions like one-time temporary funding to solve serious and complex issues.
“The line there’s only one taxpayer is true,” Gondek said. “Sadly, the only order of government that has stepped outside its legislated mandate to actually serve the public has been municipal governments.
“We’re the ones seeing the crisis unfold in our streets and the visceral response we’re having to people in this crisis is played out in this budget. We can’t wait for other orders of government to respond quickly and appropriately while we wait it out, because simply put, they’re not interested in doing the right thing right now.”
Article content
Advertisement 3
Article content
![Jyoty Gondek David Duckworth](https://i0.wp.com/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/calgaryherald/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/cityhall-budget-112123-gya-5.jpg?resize=1000%2C750&ssl=1)
Coun. Kourtney Penner told reporters she will have no problem justifying the impending tax increase for her constituents, citing the positive impact of the 28 investment items.
“I’m quite comfortable going back and showing how those dollars line up and what that investment looks like for Calgarians,” she said, shortly before the budget was approved.
“There’s many ways to do affordability and it’s not just property taxes.”
Taxation formula to change to 53:47 split for residential properties
On day three of 2024 budget adjustment deliberations, council voted against over a dozen motions from certain councillors that sought to reduce the tax increase.
Three of those motions aimed to prevent increasing the residential property tax burden.
The current taxation formula sees residential properties pay for 52 per cent of the city’s tax burden, while businesses take on the other 48 per cent.
Related Stories
Crime, transit safety under scrutiny as city budget talks continue
Public makes pitches for changes to City of Calgary budget
Calgary households could see 7.8 per cent tax increase this year if residential share is boosted
Calgary’s business-residential tax ratio, highest among big cities nationwide, forecast to widen further: report
Advertisement 4
Article content
As part of budget adjustments for next year, administration proposed increasing the residential share of this 52:48 split by one per cent annually for the next three years. City staff argued this will take some tax strain off business owners, who currently pay more than four times the amount of tax that homeowners do for every dollar of their properties’ assessed values.
A one per cent difference on its own, staff argued, will result in households paying an average $4 a month more in taxes and businesses paying an average $173 a month less in 2024. That doesn’t account for other increases caused by the 2024 budget adjustments, however.
‘The shift is fundamentally fair’
The first motion on Wednesday, put forward by Coun. Andre Chabot, was to prevent the proposed property tax share shift. Chabot warned the change will harm homeowners and contribute to an already-high property tax increase in 2024.
“We’ve gone so far on our spending that we’ve utilized every tool in our toolbox — drawing down our reserves, looking for additional revenue to help pay for all the wants that council has,” Chabot said. “I can’t support all those wants.”
Advertisement 5
Article content
A majority of council disagreed. Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said his household pays approximately $12.16 a day in property taxes for city-operated services and that this is “an incredibly good value” for the municipal services he receives.
But this cost has been partially subsidized in recent years by the disproportionate taxes paid by Calgary’s business community, Carra argued.
“I just think from a responsibility perspective, from a fairness perspective, paying a bit more to accurately reflect the actual services you’re consuming as a citizen is not a bad thing,” he said.
“I think the shift is fundamentally fair. It’s the right thing to do and we have to stop free-riding on the shoulders of businesses.”
![Andre Chabot](https://i0.wp.com/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/calgaryherald/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/CAL-062023-gyb-16-copy.jpg?resize=1000%2C750&ssl=1)
After Chabot’s original motion was defeated 6-8, two similar amendments were presented by Coun. Sonya Sharp and Coun. Terry Wong.
Sharp moved to shift the residential tax share by one per cent in 2024, but not to increase it beyond that in 2025 or 2026. Her amendment failed by the same 6-8 count as Chabot’s original motion.
Wong’s proposal was for a more incremental change: to halve the percentage and double the timeline, meaning the city would increase the residential tax burden by 0.5 per cent a year over six years. This motion also failed.
Advertisement 6
Article content
Motions to cut spending repeatedly voted down
In the afternoon, additional budget amendments from Chabot and Sharp to cut costs were defeated one after another.
Sharp’s second motion was for the city to draw upon its $100-million operating surplus to provide Calgarians a rebate to offset the impacts of a higher tax bill. Her motion also included delaying or cancelling all items from the city’s 28 investment recommendations in 2024 that didn’t relate to affordable housing or public safety – the only two she said she supports.
“Anyone could bring a wish list forward,” said Sharp.
“Everything else is a nice-to-have or a pet project at this point.”
Like the other amendments, Sharp’s second motion failed 6-9.
![Sonya Sharp](https://i0.wp.com/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/calgaryherald/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/citycouncilbudget009.jpg?resize=1000%2C750&ssl=1)
As debate continued into the afternoon, a similar or identical voting pattern followed on the next several amendments to cut spending, introduced by either Chabot or Sharp. In total, 24 amendments were made.
Some of the defeated motions included removing $27 million from the budget to account for inflationary increases, cutting $8 million to support Green Line pre-construction costs, taking out $4 million to support the city’s secondary suite incentive program and a $3-million reduction to limit transit fare increases in 2024.
Article content
Share this article in your social network