Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Province gives Calgary money... council deciding what to do with it.

Bunk · 04-22-2013, 11:04 AM

Keep in mind this money is $52.1 million annually. So, it's $1 billion over 20 years.

In the past, when the Province vacated "tax room" and the City has taken it and used if for capital projects. The first big tranche was a couple years ago - $42 million annually for the Community Investment Fund - which is funding the 4 new rec centres and a big chunk of the Central Library. Last year there was $10.2m in tax room that was dedicated to a bunch of little things like eliminating the resident portion of City-initiated sidewalk replacement, transit reliability measures, targeted traffic optimizations (lane reversals, signal syncs, additional turn lanes, etc) and so forth.

There are four proposals for this $52.1 million annually:

1. Return it to the residential property taxpayer so that your tax increase this year will be about 1.3% instead of 5.5%

2. Return it specifically to non-residential property taxpayer to reduce the differential between non-residential and residential property taxes. Non-res is said to pay a disproportionate share compared to residential (in comparison to other cities)

3. Create a neighbourhood revitalization fund - basically what Edmonton does - go neighbourhood by nieghbourhood and replace aging infrastructure (sidewalks, road surface, lights) and build other infrastructure to support redevelopment

4. Create a dedicated Transit Capital Fund. This would essentially allow the development of 5 or 6 dedicated transitways identified in the RouteAhead Plan - SWBRT, Centre Street Busway, 17th Ave SE Busway, SE Busway improvements (in advance of LRT development), West U of C campus mobility (possibly a gondola across the valley to connect to WLRT), 16th Avenue Crosstown BRT, etc. It would also fund all unfunded Light Rail Vehicle replacement and growth for the next ten years. The City must retire 82 of the original U2 LRT vehicles as well as grow the fleet to increase capacity (full 4 car LRT).

04-22-2013, 11:04 AM	#17
Bunk Franchise Player Join Date: Jul 2006 Exp:	Keep in mind this money is $52.1 million annually. So, it's $1 billion over 20 years. In the past, when the Province vacated "tax room" and the City has taken it and used if for capital projects. The first big tranche was a couple years ago - $42 million annually for the Community Investment Fund - which is funding the 4 new rec centres and a big chunk of the Central Library. Last year there was $10.2m in tax room that was dedicated to a bunch of little things like eliminating the resident portion of City-initiated sidewalk replacement, transit reliability measures, targeted traffic optimizations (lane reversals, signal syncs, additional turn lanes, etc) and so forth. There are four proposals for this $52.1 million annually: 1. Return it to the residential property taxpayer so that your tax increase this year will be about 1.3% instead of 5.5% 2. Return it specifically to non-residential property taxpayer to reduce the differential between non-residential and residential property taxes. Non-res is said to pay a disproportionate share compared to residential (in comparison to other cities) 3. Create a neighbourhood revitalization fund - basically what Edmonton does - go neighbourhood by nieghbourhood and replace aging infrastructure (sidewalks, road surface, lights) and build other infrastructure to support redevelopment 4. Create a dedicated Transit Capital Fund. This would essentially allow the development of 5 or 6 dedicated transitways identified in the RouteAhead Plan - SWBRT, Centre Street Busway, 17th Ave SE Busway, SE Busway improvements (in advance of LRT development), West U of C campus mobility (possibly a gondola across the valley to connect to WLRT), 16th Avenue Crosstown BRT, etc. It would also fund all unfunded Light Rail Vehicle replacement and growth for the next ten years. The City must retire 82 of the original U2 LRT vehicles as well as grow the fleet to increase capacity (full 4 car LRT). __________________ Trust the snake.