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Claeren · 05-08-2006, 07:13 PM

Calgary has some of the lowest big city porperty taxes in Canada, no?

And property taxes do not match inflation like income taxes do.

-If you earn $50,000 this year, lets say you pay 50% tax or $25,000 in taxes.
-Then you get a big raise to $60,000 next year and taxes stay the same at 50%.
-You then pay 30,000 in taxes, or $5000 more then last year.
-(They would have to cut taxes by 8%, just to maintain the same absolute income tax penalty in this scenario!)

Compared to the city:
You have a house worth 500,000, and you pay say 20,000 in tax.
Next year your house is worth 600,000 but you still pay 20,000 in tax.

The two important things to think about in regards to city taxation IMHO:

1) The Provincial and Federal have left cities out to dry, at the best of times only offering them uncertain one time funding, and the only way left for cities to get big money is through property taxes, and even then the province traditionally takes ~%50!

2) The cities costs go up at least by the rate of inflation each year, and the cities own basket of costs usually even more so then regular inflation! So if they DIDN'T raise property taxes each year then (a) services would HAVE to be dropped and (b) a large one year increase would eventually take place as opposed to a few percent a year.

I believe i read somewhere a short while back that Calgary's municiple cost inflation for each of the past few years has been in excess of 4.5% (compounded annually obviously). So to just maintain fuding they would have to raise property taxes (and user fee's) by the same amount annually.

Claeren.

05-08-2006, 07:13 PM	#6
Claeren Franchise Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Section 218 Exp:	Calgary has some of the lowest big city porperty taxes in Canada, no? And property taxes do not match inflation like income taxes do. -If you earn $50,000 this year, lets say you pay 50% tax or $25,000 in taxes. -Then you get a big raise to $60,000 next year and taxes stay the same at 50%. -You then pay 30,000 in taxes, or $5000 more then last year. -(They would have to cut taxes by 8%, just to maintain the same absolute income tax penalty in this scenario!) Compared to the city: You have a house worth 500,000, and you pay say 20,000 in tax. Next year your house is worth 600,000 but you still pay 20,000 in tax. The two important things to think about in regards to city taxation IMHO: 1) The Provincial and Federal have left cities out to dry, at the best of times only offering them uncertain one time funding, and the only way left for cities to get big money is through property taxes, and even then the province traditionally takes ~%50! 2) The cities costs go up at least by the rate of inflation each year, and the cities own basket of costs usually even more so then regular inflation! So if they DIDN'T raise property taxes each year then (a) services would HAVE to be dropped and (b) a large one year increase would eventually take place as opposed to a few percent a year. I believe i read somewhere a short while back that Calgary's municiple cost inflation for each of the past few years has been in excess of 4.5% (compounded annually obviously). So to just maintain fuding they would have to raise property taxes (and user fee's) by the same amount annually. Claeren.