Calgarians weigh in on city budget adjustment and tax increase

How the city’s newly-adjusted budget, which includes a nearly eight-per cent residential property tax increase, is being received by Calgarians really depends on who you ask.

After a three-day deliberation, Calgary city council approved the 2o24 budget adjustments Wednesday evening.

“We knew we needed to make some pretty key investments in the interest of Calgarians,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek told reporters following council’s decision. “We didn’t make a popular decision, we made the right one.”

The adjustments will result in a 7.8-per cent increase to residential property taxes, which is expected to cost an extra $16 monthly for a typical Calgary home assessed at $610,000.

“I just moved here to get away from that back home. It’s not great,” David Roberts told Global News after immigrating to Calgary from the United Kingdom. “It’s affordability more than anything.  Where is it going?”

Budget documents include a breakdown of the 7.8 per cent increase to residential property taxes.

A total of 3.4 per cent, or $7 monthly, is attributed to the property tax increase for 2024 that was approved in the four-year budget last year.

Another two per cent, or $4 per month, is from re-shifting of the tax share from businesses to residential properties.

The remaining 2.4 per cent, $5 every month on your bill, is due to a list of 28 “investment priorities” recommended by administration and approved by city council.

That slew of investments include funding for affordable housing, transit service improvements and public safety.

“Any expense right now is a challenge, but I’m optimistic that things will be able to level out,” Mike Delamont told Global News. “A few extra dollars a month isn’t going to keep me up at night if it means we can have some meaningful programs in place.”

The increased spending includes $27 million in operating funding, and another $54.5 million in one-time dollars for initiatives in the city’s housing strategy. Another $90 million in capital funding will be used to build more affordable housing.

Kathryn Davies, co-founder of the pro-housing group More Neighbours Calgary, said the funding represents “concrete movement” on the city’s recently approved housing affordability strategy.

“The city did pass its housing strategy, and  it was a glorious moment. But it’s a Pyrrhic victory if those items aren’t actually implemented and funded,” Davies told Global News. ” I thought these were really important items and I was really happy to see them get some funding.”

There were also several transit-related investments including $4 million for improvements to transit service, aimed at increasing frequency.

A total of $6 million was allocated to freeze increases to transit fares, and to make transit free for kids under 12 for the next three years, after a pilot program last year.

A total of $15 million in annual operating funding was also allocated to the city’s transit safety strategy, which will see 65 additional transit peace officers hired to increase response times to incidents of crime or social disorder across the train and bus network.

Mutriba Din said she welcomes the funding as many of her friends and her daughter often take transit and often express how they don’t feel safe.

“I feel for people who are feeling hardships because of rising costs, but I also agree that we need increased public safety, affordable housing and transit,” she said. “To balance that, it’s hard.”

Calgary businesses will also see an increase in property taxes this year around 3.5 per cent, or an additional $277 monthly based on a non-residential property assessed at $5.2 million.

However, there is some relief for businesses with council approving an annual one per cent shift to the tax share from businesses to residential properties.

Currently, 52 per cent of property taxes are covered by residential taxpayers and 48 per cent by non-residential properties; that is set to change to 55 per cent residential and 45 per cent non-residential by 2026.

The Calgary Chamber of Commerce advocated for an annual two per cent shift to the tax share, but said the move during budget adjustments is a “step in the right direction.”

“That rebalancing is important because we’ve had a lot more residents come to Calgary but not a lot more business start,” said Ruhee Ismail-Teja with the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. “We think it’s reasonable that residents make a small investment in the well-being of their businesses and it’s really the small business community that’s impacted by this.”

An investment that Brad McCarty said he’s comfortable paying as Calgary tries to make its economy more viable.

“Residents, and as a community, we need to start looking at our downtown is still in recovery, it’s not there yet,” McCarty told Global News. “Whatever we can do as a collaborative to push that along, even if it’s for a couple of years, I think it will do a world of good.”

Six city councillors voted against the budget, with many citing affordability concerns.

Meaghon Reid, executive director of Vibrant Communities Calgary, said council was faced with a tough balance of necessary social spending and increasing property taxes.

“Some of these investments that were made, for example to fund the affordable housing strategy and transit, some of those will take a while to realize.  But it’s really important that we’re making those investments now … That doesn’t necessarily help the people who are feeling the pinch right now though,” she said.

“If you have a child under 12 who wants to ride transit for free, you will save money because of the investments that were made, but if you don’t use public transit, and you’re seeing that extra almost $20 on your tax bill, that can also be really difficult.”