Calgary city council will be sitting down for the second time to work out a final decision on property taxes, but it looks like home owners will be paying more no matter what.

Last week’s meeting ended with no decision after a long debate over the residential and non-residential tax rates for 2019.

Council needs to cover a huge $250M hole in the budget that came from a high business vacancy rate and dwindling property values and raising taxes is the simplest way to do it, but by how much remains unclear.

Of course, council did make some headway during last council’s meeting, cutting the list of options from eight down to two.

Unfortunately, both of them will cost taxpayers but the question now is which will hurt less in the long run.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi says council really needs to address the balance between business taxes and residential taxes, because the city has been relying too heavily on the latter and it’s taken a toll on the economy.

“Although we haven’t been increasing business taxes overall and our non-residential rate remains one of the lowest in the country, the problem we have is the distribution,” he said on Friday. “Some people are seeing huge decreases in our taxes, particularly in our downtown, and some are seeing huge increases that businesses can’t afford.”

In the first option, residential taxes would increase by about $120 to $125 while business taxes would be cut by $2,000 to $3,000. The other option is more “aggressive,” Nenshi says.

“It would increase residential tax by about $200 and cut the business tax by about $5,000.”

Both options are based on $475,000 being the average price of a home in Calgary.

Ward 3 councillor Jyoti Gondek wants to make sure that whatever happens, it’s as palatable to taxpayers as possible.

She says one way to do that would be to offer a rebate to homeowners to reduce the blow from the tax increase.

“I need 10 votes on Monday to open up a dialogue about giving a rebate to the residential property owner who we are increasing taxes for. That should be a no-brainer that we should have that conversation.”

Gondek adds the city can come up with savings somewhere, but some hard work will need to be done.

“Where can we divest ourselves of assets we no longer need? How can you get that one time money, plus non-residential tax in perpetuity?”

Nenshi adds he is disappointed that a decision on the matter wasn’t hammered out last week.

“I’m very disappointed myself that council didn’t make a decision last week. And I’m very disappointed that they didn’t at least set the direction. Because at the beginning of the meeting I said, ‘You’ve got to make a decision on ’19 and you’ve got to set the direction for ’20,’ ’21,’ 22.’”

Gondek says by holding off on the decision, it means administrators have more time to learn about new cost-saving measures.

“By not setting a rate for 2020, 2021 and 2022, it allows us the next eight months to find where those service lines are [and] where we think we can make some deep cuts.”

Tax bills are scheduled to be sent out at the end of May and paid by the end of June, so administrators say if there is any further delay, it could affect those deadlines.

The council meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. on Monday.

(With files from Jordan Kanygin)