It may have all the hallmarks of a scorched earth policy, as city aldermen are promising to leave nothing untouched in the hunt for lower property tax rates.
“There can be no sacred cows,” said Ald. Ray Jones. “Nothing can be left alone, including front line emergency services.”
Some want to carve into paper costs, trim grass-mowing expenditures, install hiring freezes and cut back an estimated $50 million in annual consulting expenses.
The entire week at city hall has been allocated to the proposed three-year budget’s dissection and Calgarians have a full-fledged five-minute-a-person say today starting at 9:30 a.m.
If the outpouring of frustration at a Saturday open house is any indication, it’s going to be a messy week, and Ald. Bob Hawkesworth expects five 14-hour days before the dust settles and the budget is approved.
That is, however, only if it isn’t sent back to administration to find more areas to cut, as a motion by seven aldermen seeks to do, which could delay a final hike number for at least a month.
Also clouding the outcome is the potential for the budgetary process to be forced back into an every year event and the motion from mayor Dave Bronconnier which seeks to cut out EMS funding and increase the city’s dividends from Enmax by $8 million annually to allow more breathing room.
It’s not going to be pretty, but will be politicking at its best.
When administration first brought forward their budget proposal, it called for a much larger increase and Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart said if they could cut by nearly 20 per cent, her request shouldn’t be hard to come by.
“Administration gets paid the big bucks, they can find that three per cent, even if it comes off of their ability to hire more full time staff,” Colley-Urquhart said.
First on the list of hacks should be getting out of unnecessary businesses, said Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s Scott Hennig, who thinks Calgary should privatize garbage and recycling collection, give up their golf courses and parking lots and streamline all aspects of what’s left.
“Managers are going to tell you they can’t find anywhere to cut without drastically hurting service quality,” Hennig said. “Call their bluff, give them less money and they’ll find ways to deal.”
Budget numbers to chew on
- $ 11.9 B Total amount of the City of Calgary budget.
- $7.9 billion is the proposed operating budget – or the day-to-day costs of running the city.
- $4 billion is the proposed capital project budget – infrastructure, such as the new pedestrian bridges
- $164.28 The amount of new annual fees proposed, over and above property tax increases
- Recycling program – $96
- Garbage – $48
- Water and sewer – $20.28
- 33.5 % The proposed tax increase over three years in the preliminary budget numbers put forward to council in February.
- City administration pared the number to 23.3 per cent over three years
- Further reduction proposed late Thursday to 19.5 per cent over three years
- 130 New firefighters to go along with four proposed new fire halls, as well as 242 new police positions.
- 19.1 % The largest-ever one-year tax increase in city council history – proposed by then Alderman Sue Higgins in 1981.
