Chamber’s message to council: Status quo is not good enough
Angered by repeated tax hikes and rising city spending after two years of recession, Calgary business owners voiced their collective displeasure during the often testy municipal election campaign.
Calgary Chamber of Commerce president Adam Legge says it’s evident candidates took notice, even if most were short on specifics about how to retain jobs and grow the local economy.
“Business issues, efficiency and entrepreneurialism really rose to higher levels than we’ve seen in the past few elections, so we were very pleased with that,” Legge said Tuesday. “There were more people talking about it, more of a focus ... during the campaign.”
A Trend Research poll conducted for the chamber in late September found taxes and the economy were key issues for Calgarians.
Of the 300 people surveyed, 31 per cent cited taxes and money management as the most important issue, followed by the economy and jobs, at 23 per cent.
A majority of respondents — 55 per cent — said they believed the city is overspending.
“We did see some musings around what to do with respect to some spending and efficiencies, but I think we’ve got a council that, quite frankly, has its work cut out for itself to really protect jobs and make sure Calgary is a competitive place to do business,” said Legge.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who was re-elected to a third term Monday, pledged during the campaign to extend a cap on property taxes for non-residential properties outside the downtown core.
Council in January approved a one-year, $45-million plan to limit non-residential municipal tax increases to no more than five per cent. The subsidy program was prompted by a $4-billion drop in the assessed value of increasingly vacant downtown offices that shifted the tax shortfall to the owners of buildings outside the core.
“The reality is it’s still a Band-Aid to a problem that’s going to plague us for probably upwards of a decade,” said Legge.
“What it really speaks to is city council needs to look at its budget and begin to cut its spending, so that it doesn’t actually need as much from taxpayers, and, secondly, begin to spread that burden more on to the residential sector.”
The chamber, before Monday’s vote, launched an online campaign that offered three core recommendations for the next council — more efficient spending, greater tax equity and the removal of outdated regulations and red tape.
Half of the 14 winning ward candidates pledged to back the chamber’s recommendations.
Legge said the city’s 2017 business tax rate was 3.5 times the residential rate.
The chamber plan would reduce that to 2.85:1 over the next four years, and to 2:1 within 10 years.
Average annual city spending has increased 6.5 per cent since 2009, almost double average inflation and population growth during that time, according to chamber figures.
Legge said while optimism is slowly returning within his membership, mounting costs connected to all three levels of government remain a concern.
“What I don’t want any of the returning city council to think is that their return means everything is OK and they can keep doing what they’re doing, or what they have done,” he said.