Calgary’s mayor is calling the UCP government’s sharp increase in the provincial education property tax the largest property tax hike in the city’s history.
Mayor Jeromy Farkas says the province’s decision to raise its education property tax requisition by $500 million in the latest budget will hit Calgary households far harder than the municipal increase.
While the city’s portion adds about $50 to the average annual bill, the provincial hike will tack on nearly $350.
Homeowner Phillip Leibrecht admits he rarely looks past the total amount on his bill.
“To be honest I just look at the top line number,” he says. “I go woah, went up, well that sucks.”
Farkas says that’s exactly the problem. He worries Calgarians will blame city hall for a spike largely driven by the province.
“We are in an egregious situation right now where this biggest tax increase in Calgary’s history, being pushed down Calgarians’ throats by our provincial government, is going to trigger an extreme affordability crisis in our city, and we cannot abide by that,” he says.
To make the distinction clearer, he’s considering sending municipal and provincial tax bills in separate envelopes.
Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly wants the city to revive the Municipal Fiscal Gap report, which outlines services that Calgary funds that may actually fall under provincial responsibility. He plans to bring a notice of motion to council’s executive committee.
“While there is no new real funding for Calgary, we are seeing a 21 per cent increase in our property taxes,” he says. “That’s kind of unacceptable to me. That money is clearly going somewhere else.”
Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean offered a more pointed suggestion to the province.
“I said to the minister, just write us a real big fat cheque for our water pipes, and maybe we can sell this,” he said.
Speaking to a Calgary business audience, Finance Minister Nate Horner said the city shouldn’t be surprised.
“I said I was going to do it last year,” Horner says. “We are getting to 33 per cent. We didn’t want to put it all on folks in one year.”
Speaking on Thursday after the budget was tabled, Farkas said the hike in education tax comes as Calgary is set to see a $6 million reduction in funding from the Local Government Fiscal Framework a fund that helps with infrastructure needs, due to lower provincial revenues.
He called the “another version of equalization.”