Ward 11 Alderman Brian Pincott | City of Calgary Office of the Aldermen

Ah... Taxes... that catches everyone's attention!

As everyone no doubt knows, we are heading into budget time at City Hall, there are a lot of numbers that are being thrown around right now and there is still a lot of work to do in preparation. As well, there is going to be a public information session on November 15th from 10 until 3 in the Municipal Building Atrium. We will be adding all the information to the ward 11 website as we get it.

But, what is out there right now? So far, it is looking like just under 10% for 2009, and a total of 22% over the three years. To put that into real dollars, which I find more helpful to give a scale to the numbers we are talking about, in 2009 that will be an average increase of about $150 per household, or, just over $12 a month. I put it like this so that we have it in perspective. And yes, there are the new fees for waste and recycling on top of that. (see previous entry on garbage user fees).

I am getting a lot of comments from people that we must do more to cut, that they are not seeing enough cutting. The challenge is that its difficult to show "cost cutting" in a budgetary process. The goal is to find the balance between efficiencies and investing soundly in the future.

Let me assure you that I believe the answer is in two areas: 1) finding the efficiencies that can exist within such a large organization as the City of Calgary, and 2) making investments in our community that will serve all of us well into the future. In these two ways will we ensure that we are maximizing your tax dollars for the long term benefit of our City. It may be easy to look for those things to cut in the short term, we musn't rush to blindly cut, for we may end up cutting off our nose despite our face. I am determined to find the answers within these two areas.

And that is a much longer and more thoughtful process than just hacking and cutting our way through a budget without consideration for the future.