2010 Calgary Civic Election issues ?

[First Lady]

I'd like to take the pulse of CP in regards to the issues for the upcoming civic election.

What are your top two or three issues that you feel the aldermanic and mayoralty candidates should be addressing?

[RedHot25]

While its on the mayoralty race, I'm betting you'll find your answers in here....

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=90716

[Caged Great]

Corruption, waste and incompetence would be mine.

I think a clean wipe of the entire lot of them would be good.

[algernon]

Stopping that Wild Rose party should be job 1.
Bedroom communities paying for city roads they use daily.
Inner-city residents getting tax breaks.
Corporal punishment for violent criminals.
Junkfood tax.

[Bunk]

Understanding that we're a big city now, not a city of 300,000 just with more people.

[mykalberta]

Dont feed someone trying to start a flame war - 2 above

[You Need a Thneed]

Secondary Suites
SE LRT
Airport Trail Tunnel

[algernon]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

Dont feed someone trying to start a flame war - 2 above

What?
So, some issues shouldn't be discussed? Do you eat a lot of junkfood or something?
Yes, I was kidding about the WRP, and mostly kidding about beating violent criminals.
I think people should pay their "share". That includes health costs associated with eating poorly. People in the inner city don't need a ton of expensive infrastructure, as they have already paid for it. People from surrounding communities using roads and interchanges pay their taxes to their towns, not the city.
Pfft. flame war.

[Slava]

^ how many of those issues are even municipal issues? How exactly do you propose the City of Calgary enact legislation of some sort dealing with criminals when they have no jurisdiction...or a junk food tax or really forcing non-residents to pay for the roads?

Sure, i think that we all agree the wildrose should be stopped, but even that has no place in a civic election where there are no parties represented.

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by RedHot25

While its on the mayoralty race, I'm betting you'll find your answers in here....

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=90716

Thank you. Yes, I have reviewed it. I was looking for more discussion surrounding key issues in particular, rather than getting into a debate of individual candidates.

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by algernon

Inner-city residents getting tax breaks.

Could you expand on this one?

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by First Lady

Could you expand on this one?

I think it's an issue of the inner city being taxed at high rates because of the higher property values, but that money isn't being spent on infrastructure for the inner city, but rather it's being spent on supporting the suburban communities.

That's pretty unfair.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by fotze

Agree with the junkfood issue, but NYC and some american cities for some reason get involved in those issues, maybe thats where it comes from.

I see what you're saying (and for the record I personally would support these types of taxes). I guess with NYC having the enormous population though that they can enact these types of things easier? Don't know that to be the case, just speculating. I also wonder if that is due to the separation of powers being different in the US as opposed to Canada. Because that might appear to fall under health is that governed by the province?

[Bunk]

Aboloshing the Property tax as the main source of revenue in favour of a mix of income, consumption and other taxes. The worst kind of tax to fund government.

[algernon]

Junk food tax.
Didn't the onus on banning smoking in public places fall to the municipalities? Couldn't the city increase business taxes on places that sell unhealthy food? or a surcharge to be collected at point of sale on items that are on a certain list? I know the logistics would be a large job, but not impossible.

Inner-city tax breaks
A simplistic solution could be to assign every property a distance to City centre/City Hall. Taxes in part could be calculated on this distance, with an accompanying calculation based on the density of your neighbourhood.

User pay roads
An RFID in the stickers of license plates could signal to a collector mounted on lamp posts, then send the bill to the non-Calgarian. EDIT:This would need to be a provincial initiative... So strike this from the Municipal election.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

I'd like to see a solid 10- or even 20-year infrastructure plan--the West LRT is a great start, but I want to know that I have a civic government that has its eye on the kind of city Calgary will be in a decade or two. How will they address urban sprawl? Traffic congestion? Public transit?

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by kermitology

I think it's an issue of the inner city being taxed at high rates because of the higher property values, but that money isn't being spent on infrastructure for the inner city, but rather it's being spent on supporting the suburban communities.

That's pretty unfair.

This will disappoint a lot of people, but suburban communities actually do pay for themselves. And infrastructure downtown is constantly updated.

How about far flung but really old suburbs like Canyon Meadows, Lakeview, Bonavista and Silver Springs? Do they get tax breaks too?

[mykalberta]

Airport Tunnel.

Less Urban Sprawl - or more of an infrastructure cost shift to those areas for roads, sewers, water, fire, police, ambulance, rec centres etc.

Financial Incentives for people who occupy more dense living - currently there are none.

[CaptainCrunch]

I'm not truly getting why the people that want to buy property and live downtown should get tax breaks. You bought property that you knew was more expensive or valuable because of its location, and in an assesment based tax system you knew you were going to pay a tax premium on that property., and with luck you'll profit from that decision someday.

The legitimate complaint is about the distribution of tax dollars, you want more spending on the inner city infrastructure. That I can respect, there should be a more equitable split on projects.

I'm all for finding ways to get out of towners to pay their share for using our infrastructure, but don't they pay provincial taxes, and we get a chunk of infrastructure dollars from the province?

I think the laws are different in municipalities between the U.S. and Canada, I don't think Canadian Cities can authorize a health tax or junk food tax, and whats the city going to use a junk food tax for? Is it going to go into general revenues, because if thats how it works I'd rather have the province enact that kind of tax and funnel the money into health care initiatives, then let the city use it on unrelated projects.

[CaptainCrunch]

I just want a monorail.

and an elevator made out of popsicle sticks.