EDMONTON — Edmonton City Council has requested a full service review, as councillors consider a staff proposal to hike property taxes by 4.9 per cent in each of the next three years.
The last time a full review was conducted was in 1997. Councillors say they want to make sure they’re getting the best value for taxpayer dollars, and there may be outdated services the city shouldn’t be funding.
“We keep adding programs and services every year, year after year,” says Ward 5 Councillor Michael Oshry. “And we never, or rarely, look at taking some things out that maybe were put in 10 or 15 years ago. And the city’s a different place than it was 20 years ago and I think there’s some things that we can be doing differently.”
The proposed 4.9 per cent hike would amount to an increase of $109 in 2016 for a typical Edmonton home valued at $401,000.
READ MORE: Proposed Edmonton property tax increase 4.9% for next three years
“I hear seniors, individuals and businesses saying, ‘we’re tapped out.’ So we’ve got to do more to bring the number aggressively down,” says Ward 11 Councillor Mike Nickel.
Mayor Don Iveson emphasized the review is not about repeating the 1997 experience, when the city made cuts to find millions of dollars in savings.
“One of things they did was lay off the guy who patches the cracks in the road,” Iveson says. “And one of the reasons we have to spend so bloody much money on neighbourhood renewal now and arterial roadway renewal, $451 million this year on roads, is because of really short-sighted cuts back then.”
A public hearing on the city’s proposed budget will be held on Nov. 23.
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