23,000 Calgarians helped shape the City budget

I write a monthly column in the Calgary Herald. Here is my November story:

Last week, the city released its draft budget proposals. Until the end of the month, you will hear a lot about the future of the city and where we will invest our money over the next three years, and you’ll have a chance to have your voice heard.

But there’s something very different this time around. Instead of a budget suddenly being released fully formed, we’ve had a lot of these conversations already. Instead of a budget with many nice-to-haves being released and then negotiated down, the city released a budget with a fair tax increase. Instead of us waiting to hear from the public until after the budget is out, more than 20,000 Calgarians have already had their ideas and visions for Calgary built into the document.

First, the context: Your city government gets about eight cents out of every tax dollar you pay — the provincial and federal governments get the rest. And, as you’ve heard me say over and over, the property tax is a lousy way to fund government but, for now, it’s all we’ve got.

Calgary does have the lowest property tax rates of any major city in Canada (near the bottom when utility rates are included) and this budget proposal holds tax increases to the rate of inflation plus growth — about $5.50 per month for the average home. Because property taxes are only about half of our revenue, this means that our expenses must grow at half the rate of inflation, which, in real terms, is a cut.

The other thing worth noting is why we need to increase the tax rate at all. Shouldn’t increases in the value of your home, or new people moving to Calgary, automatically increase the money your municipal government gets? Actually, no, the property tax calculation is a bit more complicated (and confusing) than that. As the assessment of your home increases, the property tax rate automatically decreases. Each January, a new revenue-neutral rate is calculated, and any tax increases are applied to this new, lower rate.

And while people who move here provide growth and vitality, they often cost more to serve than they pay in property tax, especially in newer neighbourhoods where we have to add fire, transit and other services.

So, where does that leave us? The new budget preserves investments in the things people have told us are important: we’ll make a major investment in transit when the west LRT and the northeast LRT extension open in 2013, and we will continue to provide the services you need every day. Thanks to the community investment fund we created this year, we will continue to build new fire halls, parks, libraries and recreation centres, and continue to fix and upgrade the ones we have.

But we’ll see some changes in how the city works. Every department has been asked to find efficiencies in advance of our new zero-based budget review process starting next year.

This means that we’ll reduce management levels, we’ll find better ways to do things, and we will preserve frontline services wherever possible. But there are a few areas in this proposal where front-line services may be impacted: for example, when the West LRT opens, we may make a modest reduction in bus service on a few routes after increasing it significantly over the last few years.

While no department is exempt from seeking efficiencies, we will not necessarily treat every department the same. For example, the Calgary Police Service has found the efficiencies that City Council asked for without impacting boots on the street, but they are concerned about future growth. The Police Commission requests that we bring forward future hiring and smooth out the growth of the force. This is a valid concern, in my opinion, but it means we’ll have to find the money to do it.

But the discussion is still very much open. When a federal or provincial budget is released, it’s usually a done deal. Not so here. The budget proposals are indeed proposals. Please let us know what you think.

You can read the budget at any branch of the Calgary Public Library or at www.calgary.ca/ourfuture and submit your comments online. You can attend a series of public meetings in all quadrants next week (details are on the website or available by calling 311). You can come speak to Council on Monday November 21, and—new this year—you can sign up to speak in advance through the website or by calling 311.

Thanks for all your input to date. Together, we’ll build a budget and, more importantly, continue to build the better Calgary we all want.

- Mayor Naheed Nenshi