'Dead on arrival': Councillor speaks out against city tax plan

‘Unacceptable’ business tax hikes in Calgary Bill Macfarlane has reaction to the massive spike in business property tax and council’s plans to alleviate the burden.

A Calgary City Councillor is speaking out against what he calls a 'dead on arrival' property tax plan.

Ward 11 councillor, Jeromy Farkas will speak to media Monday to respond to Mayor Naheed Nenshi and Council’s plan to alleviate a tax burden for small businesses.

On Friday, Farkas reached out to collaborate on the proposal with his own plan to cut spending, but says he never received a response from his fellow councillors. As a result, the notice of motion was signed by the mayor and all other councillors, except for him.

The proposal from the mayor and the majority of council is to access emergency funding and offer rebates to the affected businesses as soon as possible.

That approach would involve council finding $190.9 million to offset the previously approved property tax bill. Of that, $70.9 million would come from city funds originally proposed for business tax relief. Meanwhile, council has asked administration to find an additional $60 million in savings from municipal budget reductions and a further $60 million is being sought from the provincial government.

Farkas disagrees with this plan. Instead, he calls the tax burden on small businesses a result of over spending by the city.

The ward 11 councillor is proposing to cut councillor and city staff pay and freeze councillor pensions. Farkas also wants to withdraw $50 million from the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund, find $35 million in budget reductions, and combine that with the aforementioned $70.9 million to provide relief for small businesses.

Farkas introduced his proposal to media Monday afternoon. His notice of motion will be debated at Tuesday’s priorities and finance committee meeting.

All the while, many small business owners in Calgary continue to feel the pinch of massive property tax increases.

Brian Imeson has owned Circa Vintage Art Glass in Inglewood for 17 years and says he’s never seen a jump this big.

“Basically they went from $13,000 in 2016 to just under $40,000 now for 2019 so that’s like almost triple in that period.”

Imeson says raising his prices could help cover the cost, but he doesn’t want to do that.

Meanwhile, Mayor Nenshi recently released an opinion piece criticizing provincial municipal affairs minister, Kaycee Madu.

“The city needs to look after its own house,” said Madu.

The minister added Calgary has been spending well beyond the rate of inflation and shouldn’t be looking to the province for further help with the business tax burden.

Councillor Joe Magliocca echoed those remarks. He expressed concern when his name was added at the bottom of the Nenshi opinion piece and asked for it to be removed.

“Alberta’s government has done more to help out our business community in the last 30 days than the previous government did in the four years they were in office,” Magliocca said in Facebook post.

“The first four bills from the Jason Kenney government has already made it more affordable to do business in our province. Eliminating the Carbon Tax (Bill 1) will not only save Calgarians money, it will save the City of Calgary millions of dollars per year.”

Still Nenshi disagreed with the minister’s criticism. He said the combined population and inflation increase for the last four years is 7.59 per cent. The increase in the city’s tax-supported operating expenditures of 5.89 per cent is mostly uncontrollable inflation. He also added the combined tax rate for non-residential properties went down three per cent.

Nenshi acknowledged businesses are the hardest hit. He hopes his budget savings scenario will reduce property taxes for small businesses by two per cent this year and then freeze them for the next three years. Nenshi anticipates getting Calgary to a 50/50 split between residential and small businesses taxes in 2022.