Recap: 2024 Mid-Cycle Budget Adjustments
Every four years, the City creates a four-year budget with mid cycle adjustments planned each year to address inflation, growth and emerging priorities. This year is a mid-cycle adjustment and the budget was kept in line with our forecasted 3.6% adjustment. I supported the budget and it passed 9-6.
I often receive questions about why city budgets grow by a small percentage each year. The simple answer is that city budgets are not indexed to inflation, and we must send a third of our collected property taxes to the province. We are supposed to receive some of our tax dollars back via infrastructure grants from the province, but since 2011, provincial infrastructure grants to cities have dropped by 64%. This has led to the deterioration of infrastructure and upward pressure on property taxes.
Municipal Governments do not have enough own-source revenues to cover all expenditures. We are heavily reliant on intergovernmental transfers and we are required by law to balance the budget. While higher order governments may be spending money on other important priorities, I worry about our long-term ability to fund local infrastructure if they continue not to direct funds down at appropriate levels. With the right funding level, infrastructure can be properly maintained and repaired instead of fully replaced due to failure. Read more about the Municipal Fiscal Gap here.
At the same time cities aren’t receiving adequate transfers, the province downloads new responsibilities onto city ratepayers and restricts the ability to generate revenue. For example: we must hire hundreds more staff for the upcoming municipal election because the province doesn’t want vote tabulators to be used, despite the admission that they don’t believe that there’s any issues with them. Another example is that the province has severely restricted Automated Enforcement for Police, which means that revenue from speeding fines that used to help offset budget costs can no longer do so. It also means we must hire more police officers for a job that could’ve been done by technology. All of these changes cost city ratepayers.
The biggest topic at this year’s budget was aging infrastructure and our long-term liabilities for upkeep. This is a big issue for so many city services including recreation, which has made the news recently with the closure of the Inglewood Pool.
In this budget, I advocated for one-time funds to be be taken from reserves and put into the city’s most utilized rec facility (Village Square Leisure Centre). Although it’s not in the ward, it gets 500,000 visits from Calgarians across the city every year. The budget was approved on Friday and I found out on Monday that a pipe burst at the facility over the weekend, causing flooding and no heat. I hope this example illustrates to you how needed these investments are.
Another critical adjustment needed this budget was a $2 million Slope stability project on MacEwan Park View. These residents have been waiting for years to have the slope stabilized and road repaired. I’m glad that we’ve got this approved and construction will start next summer.
Another critical investment we put money towards was the low-income transit pass. Instead of charging those who make below 30k (single individual) a full transit fare, we subsidize the pass, but due to affordability challenges, more and more people are meeting the low-income threshold.
Click here to watch the entire proceeding and read all the amendments.
What is going on with Condo property taxes?
I have heard the concern from a few residents that property taxes for condos were increasing more than single family and other types of housing. The rate that the City sets for property taxes is the same across all residential properties. Condo owners will pay the same amount of tax per $1000 dollars of assessed value as any other property type. The assessed value increase in your property is what impacts how much you pay. Condos have seen a sharper increase in assessed value compared to other types of properties. This is driven by the real estate market, not a council decision. And we can’t change the way property taxes are assessed because it’s dictated by the provincial municipal government act.