Quote:
Originally Posted by ken0042
I know in the last city taxes thread we compared Calgary to Winnipeg, and how we are paying a lot less here than Winnipeg. I'd be curious to see how our taxes compare to Toronto; looking at the same size and style of house; ie what does a person who owns a 30 year old bungalow pay.
The bottom line is we had it great through the 90s for taxes because Duer refused to spend more than he had to. We now have an infastructure defecit that Bronco is taking care of. Yes, he has a background in construction and I don't doubt that some of his previous business partners make money from city contracts. But the city needed to spend.
Duer originally had the Glenmore-Elbow interchange scheduled to be done around 2018-2020. But it got done sooner; for probably less than what it would have cost 10 years from now. 100's of thousands of cars use that interchange every week; would we have been better of just leaving it?
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We are lower in one part then winnipeg. Maybe. Throw in all the ways you pay the city and we're higher then most.
http://www.fcpp.org/images/publicati...eWithTitle.pdf
I agree to some extent. the key word being needed. There's nothing in these tax hikes for overpasses and interchanges. This is all about programs. As have been the last few tax hikes. We're funding a bloated operating budget. It's seperate from capital - and despite the rhetoric plowing roads and building fire stations are not the biggest part of it.
Since Duerr city taxes have grown ..what..100%? Revenues from the province maybe 1000%? (thats where projects like the glenmore interchange come from). There's plenty of fiscal room for our needs. In fact one of my beefs is that this was entriely predictable. About 5 years ago money started pouring into the City, and Bronco spent on everythign BUT the essentials. This will be no different. Our taxes will grow another 20 or 30% over 3 years and we'll be having the dsame conversation. It will only end when people say enough or our local economy is beaten to submission. I prefer the former.
Someone said earlier maybe families should budget better to manage these tax hikes. I hold the government to the same standard, maybe even 1 better.