A city councillor’s attempt to cap next year’s property tax increase at 1.5 per cent made some good points with council, but came up short in the end.
A majority of council voted against Coun. Cam MacKay’s motion that stated “the property tax increase for 2013 be less than or equal to 1.5 per cent.”
MacKay and Coun. Len Bracko voted in favour of the motion.
“You look at how we size up in the Capital region. What do we gain by having higher-than-average taxes?” MacKay asked.
At the core of his argument was the notion that, of all the factors that influence a person’s decision to live in one community compared to another, value and how the person perceives that value is paramount.
“We’re in a competitive marketplace,” said MacKay, referring to the Capital region. “Since we’re clearly one of the higher-cost places, can we create value for residents with being more in line with other communities?”
Of note, MacKay said, was the fact St. Albert’s tax increases have exceeded inflation since 2000, meaning people have less money to pay more taxes. Furthermore, the value in the services the city provides is difficult to justify when they don’t support all residents.
MacKay put forward a 90/10 hypothesis – that all of the demands for services within St. Albert cater to a small group of residents (10 per cent) – yet the other 90 per cent of residents end up paying for the services as well.
“People need to see value for the price they are paying,” he said.
Economies of scale are also significant – the city needs to determine if it is, in fact, cheaper to deliver a service itself or to let residents take care of it themselves.
“Let’s find efficiencies in government services. Let’s reduce the 90/10 spending and focus on broad-based value propositions,” MacKay said. “Let’s find economies of scale and work with our neighbours. Let’s reduce the tax split.”
MacKay’s motion, however, was unpopular with a majority of councillors, who believe dictating a property tax increase cap will hamper the work administration does on the budget and will impact services.
“While we continually try to be more efficient, the reality is that basket of municipal goods will cost more than it does today,” said Coun. Wes Brodhead. “So we can ask people for less money. It all sounds well and good on the airwaves but we also have to say that basket is less full.”
Mayor Nolan Crouse said he didn’t want to see administration’s creativity in preparing the budget hampered.
“I believe our staff should present to us what they believe is the best-shot budget and for us to be pre-determining what that increase is, we might as well not have a budget process.” Crouse said.
