The majority of Calgary city council, save for a lone holdout, signed off on an urgent notice of motion designed to help businesses at the mercy of recent double digit property tax increases.
The notice of motion regarding the $190 million tax relief plan was supported by 14 of the 15 council members and will be heard on Monday. June 17.
Under the proposal, $70.9 million in assistance would be applied to non-residential taxpayers. The motion will ask administration to find an additional $60 million in savings for 2019 and future years, and for the province to match the $60 million contribution.
"I was never prepared to shift this whole tax burden on the homeowners and that's where a bit of the divide has come," said Ward 13 councillor Diane Colley-Urquhart. "We have to help out business, yes we do, but not at the expense of loading this whole tax burden, shift, ratio, away from downtown and the $300 problem we have in the core, onto homeowners when they're struggling just as much."
If successful, the $190 million would be applied to individual business tax accounts and allotted based proportionally on the business' recent tax increases.
