2016 property tax increases

[Knut]

A few years ago i actually went in front of the tribunal to get my assessment reduced.

It is an interesting process and I was able to get it reduced a bit (our permit for basement development was pulled in December, but we did not complete it until May of the next year).

It is interesting the comparables that they will pull out. They had a wide range and half of them did not apply. Because we only had a house on one side (alley on the next) and had a three car garage ours was bumped up versus others. The other issue was a huge price/sq Ft difference in our community. There is some older barracks housing that is half the sq feet but sells for much more per sq ft. They were using these as comparables, as well as houses that are backing onto the park. Unfortunately this was not brought into consideration.

In the end it was a half day of missed work and hours of putting together an argument to save about $350. Not exactly worth it

[AC]

Originally Posted by squiggs96

None of these people have a clue how property taxes and/or assessments work.

Very true. I won't complain about the easy work though.

[rain_e]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Would like to see a freeze on outward development for three years and avoid having to pay more for infrastructure 30 km from where I live.

I think the only way we see tax decreases or freezes is if the city gets smart about outward expansion and spending; or at least restructures how people pay for the services they use. That's easier said than done though.

Inner city and older community maintenance costs more then new developments.

[FLAMESRULE]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

Doesn't float my boat, thought that's what floated his/hers. Who am I to judge right?

Don't knock it if you haven't tried it!! Lol.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by shermanator

It's interesting that some posters complaining about the property tax increase also want the city to foot the bill for CalgaryNEXT....

If you look at my original post you would see I'm not complaining about paying $200 more. I would gladly pay more if I knew the money was going into a worthwhile project like CalgaryNEXT. My issue is how Nenshi continues to be lauded as a great mayor when his legacy will boils down to immature Twitter arguments, defamation lawsuits, and substantially increased taxes.

[Ozy_Flame]

Again - how is Nenshi any different from any other Mayor/councillor on raising taxes in the last 15 years? I don't think saying "THE GRAVY TRAIN STOPS HERE!" is some easy, vanilla statement to make and actually do it.

Taxes hikes are an institution every year in Calgary no matter who is at the helm.

[heep223]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Again - how is Nenshi any different from any other Mayor/councillor on raising taxes in the last 15 years? I don't think saying "THE GRAVY TRAIN STOPS HERE!" is some easy, vanilla statement to make and actually do it.

Taxes hikes are an institution every year in Calgary no matter who is at the helm.

Hmm I don't know about 15 years, but here are the % rate increases for the past 6. In fact three of the six years the overall property tax rate decreased which contradicts your statement. The obvious page jumper is the provincial government's take this year at an 11.4% increase. I wonder if they just thought nobody would really notice...

[Ozy_Flame]

I'll try and find rate increase numbers since 2000. On the whole its nothing but increases, give or take a few years.

[heep223]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

I'll try and find rate increase numbers since 2000. On the whole its nothing but increases, give or take a few years.

Here I used this, I was far too lazy to look for more http://www.calgary.ca/CA/fs/Pages/Pr...Tax-Rates.aspx

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Again - how is Nenshi any different from any other Mayor/councillor on raising taxes in the last 15 years? I don't think saying "THE GRAVY TRAIN STOPS HERE!" is some easy, vanilla statement to make and actually do it.

Taxes hikes are an institution every year in Calgary no matter who is at the helm.

In my mind this isnt about Nenshi, at least not for me, but the outrage over this is just a culmination of the current state of affairs.

- Personal Taxes are going up
- Corporate Taxes are going up
- Cost of living is going up (Carbon Tax)
- Property Taxes are going up
- Despite all of these additional taxes Government deficits are going up
- All while Employment is going down

So as people are getting into tight times financially they concurrently are getting nickle and dimed to death over every little thing.

Oh you lost your job? Too bad. Your food just got more expensive, your gas got more expensive, your utilities got more expensive and your house taxes got more expensive.

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by Locke

In my mind this isnt about Nenshi, at least not for me, but the outrage over this is just a culmination of the current state of affairs.

- Personal Taxes are going up
- Corporate Taxes are going up
- Cost of living is going up (Carbon Tax)
- Property Taxes are going up
- Despite all of these additional taxes Government deficits are going up
- All while Employment is going down

So as people are getting into tight times financially they concurrently are getting nickle and dimed to death over every little thing.

Oh you lost your job? Too bad. Your food just got more expensive, your gas got more expensive, your utilities got more expensive and your house taxes got more expensive.

It truly feels like we are getting it from all sides right now.

A co-worker just mentioned to me that in addition to the $6.50/month charge for green bins, we will also be having our garbage collection reduce to bi-weekly. Is this accurate?

[stampsx2]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Would like to see a freeze on outward development for three years and avoid having to pay more for infrastructure 30 km from where I live.

I think the only way we see tax decreases or freezes is if the city gets smart about outward expansion and spending; or at least restructures how people pay for the services they use. That's easier said than done though.

You should take a look at how much money goes into inner city maintenance as well. The inner city is also getting a $300 million library.

I don't use a lot of city services as well but have to pay for it.

[Dan02]

If we've got a 10.4 billion provincial deficit and 4.2 million people where roughly 60% are taxpayers. We're either under taxed by $4100 per taxpayer. Or our provincial government is vastly overspending.

Does anyone here think we're undertaxed by $4100 by our provincial government?

The end number is probably somewhere in the middle but the reality is this provincial government is overspending it's means full stop. Total compensation is too high for a significant number of our provincial employees compared to other jurisdictions and the number of middle managers is excessive.

It's not a matter of arguing over how much a certain profession deserves to get paid at this point it's beyond that. It's simply it's not sustainable to continue to spend this much and part of that solution is reigning in compensation.

[stampsx2]

Originally Posted by Locke

In my mind this isnt about Nenshi, at least not for me, but the outrage over this is just a culmination of the current state of affairs.

- Personal Taxes are going up
- Corporate Taxes are going up
- Cost of living is going up (Carbon Tax)
- Property Taxes are going up
- Despite all of these additional taxes Government deficits are going up
- All while Employment is going down

You could also include minor stuff like
- cost of garbage is going up (green bin)
- alchohol is going up
- transmission and distribution rates for Enmax will be going up
Carbon tax is:
- heating
- electricity
- gas (4 cents/liter next year then 6 cents/ liter the year after)

Trickle down effect:
- food and goods will be going up to cover the cost of heating/refrigeration/transportation. The consumer will pay for it.
- municipal and provincial buildings will also have increased costs due to heating and electricity
- the city of Calgary fleet will have additional gas costs
I heard the city may be exempt but I've heard conflicting info

And the biggest one you forgot was:
- The cost of labor is going up - minimum wage increase

People will have less disposable income and don't even realize it's happening

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

It truly feels like we are getting it from all sides right now.

A co-worker just mentioned to me that in addition to the $6.50/month charge for green bins, we will also be having our garbage collection reduce to bi-weekly. Is this accurate?

I believe that is accurate. They will alternate between black and green bin pickup each week IIRC.

Shouldn't really be a big issue, we rarely have enough waste to fill the black bin each week anyhow.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

I believe that is accurate. They will alternate between black and green bin pickup each week IIRC.

Shouldn't really be a big issue, we rarely have enough waste to fill the black bin each week anyhow.

Yeah, but I've got a family of 5 and that bin is FULL every week and we give our compost to our neighbours who use it in their garden.

Why not alternate the blue bin every couple of weeks because if we have too much I just take the rest to a recycling station, but if theres not enough room for garbage I have to go to the dump?

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Locke

Why not alternate the blue bin every couple of weeks because if we have too much I just take the rest to a recycling station, but if theres not enough room for garbage I have to go to the dump?

Naw, just toss garbage into the green or blue one. Or your neighbors; before they can get to it.

[para transit fellow]

I wonder if folks get the math right. It is easy to look at the change in your payments but miss the real increase.

My TIPP payments will go up about 15 percent as of July 1.

But that increase doesn't apply to the six payments I have already made.... so my TIPP payments will average about a 7.5 % increase for the year.

Note: I still have to confirm my total tipp payments in 2015 to confirm my tax increase.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

You could also include minor stuff like
- cost of garbage is going up (green bin)
- alchohol is going up
- transmission and distribution rates for Enmax will be going up
Carbon tax is:
- heating
- electricity
- gas (4 cents/liter next year then 6 cents/ liter the year after)

Trickle down effect:
- food and goods will be going up to cover the cost of heating/refrigeration/transportation. The consumer will pay for it.
- municipal and provincial buildings will also have increased costs due to heating and electricity
- the city of Calgary fleet will have additional gas costs
I heard the city may be exempt but I've heard conflicting info

And the biggest one you forgot was:
- The cost of labor is going up - minimum wage increase

People will have less disposable income and don't even realize it's happening

It kind of makes you wonder where the hell all the money goes. I feel tempted to say something about big corporations and those damn 1%ers because honestly I have no idea.

Everyone seems to have less money and everything seems to cost more. Even people who have jobs are getting smaller raises. The money isn't just disappearing into thin air, it must be going somewhere. I'd guess it is going into the pockets of the shareholders and executives at the companies that sell us the goods. Money isn't like that missing sock that just mysteriously goes missing in the dryer.

Ok CP, time for some violent upheaval so that we can remake society.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

It kind of makes you wonder where the hell all the money goes. I feel tempted to say something about big corporations and those damn 1%ers because honestly I have no idea.

Everyone seems to have less money and everything seems to cost more. Even people who have jobs are getting smaller raises. The money isn't just disappearing into thin air, it must be going somewhere. I'd guess it is going into the pockets of the shareholders and executives at the companies that sell us the goods. Money isn't like that missing sock that just mysteriously goes missing in the dryer.

Ok CP, time for some violent upheaval so that we can remake society.

How about the add on that it goes into the governments pockets at multiple levels and they piss it away.

Its not all the evil corporate sector that's siphoning the money.