The city must make up $250 million in lost property taxes from downtown office towers and met on Monday to discuss how to make up the shortfall in tax revenue.
Vacant downtown office space was one of the topics up for discussion on Monday. and Evan Woolley unsuccessfully pitched a plan to alleviate some of the tax burden on businesses.He called for a cut of $100 million from the city budget with the hopes of transferring some of the tax burden off of non-residential properties, which could mean cuts to services and spending.
Administration recommends increasing residential property taxes by $65 each year from now until 2022 on homes valued at $465,000. They are also looking at finding $20 million is savings each year.
In November, council approved a tax increase of up to $382 per year by 2022, which is subject to change. Some councillors are proposing higher tax increases for homeowners of up to $500 per year by 2022.
The city has spent $90 million in reserve funds over the last two years to mitigate tax increases on businesses.
After hours of debate, council pushed its decision on setting the residential and non-residential tax rates for 2019 to Monday, April 8. Council reduced its list of eight potential plans to two by the end of Monday's session. Both options would see homeowners paying more than they are now.
“Frankly, we’ve got two proposals in front of us,” said Ward 8 councillor Evan Woolley following Monday's debate.“One is the Mayor’s proposal which is based on assumptions and a number of things that we do not know. We have no idea whether we’re getting $26 million from the province in provincial tax room.”Woolley says Mayor Nenshi's proposal also currently lacks solid parameters regarding plans for a grant program for businesses.
“On the other proposal, we don’t have the numbers on that yet but we can guess that that will be a significant increase in residential taxes."
For more on the Notice of Motion: Alleviating the Tax Burden on Businesses and Creating Tax Equity Through Budget Reductions, click HERE.
(With files from Mark Villiani and Jordan Kanygin)