So digging into numbers a little more
http://www.calgary.ca/cfod/finance/D...eport-2015.pdf
http://www.calgary.ca/cfod/finance/D...eport-2016.pdf
http://www.calgary.ca/cfod/finance/D...eport-2017.pdf
In 2015 final expenses were 3.015 billion + .576 billion in depreciation = 3.590 billion
In 2016 final expenses were 3.10billion + .596 billion in amortization = 3.694 billion
In 2017 final expenses were 3.19 billion + .628 billion in amoritization = 3.818 billion
I don’t k ow the difference between the two terms depreciation and amortization but the starting point for the 2015 number being used in the linked study doesn’t match with any numbers in the city financial report that I can tell. This would make it 3.9% vs 6% for growth using inflation and 5.3% vs 6% using MPI.
I might be really screwing up the numbers here but looking at the 2016 and 2015 financials it’s hard to find how they used 3.450 billion as the starting point.
Edit: found where 3.450 billion came from it is the 2014 city expenses rather than the 2015 number. Page 28 of the 2015 city financials.