Ongoing YYCCC (Chu + Farkas) Transgressions Threat

[Makarov]

Originally Posted by the_only_turek_fan

The person living in a $500,000 home uses the same services and infrastructure as someone living in a $1,500,000 home.

That actually strikes me as quite unlikely. I think that, generally speaking, a person living in a $1,500,000 property uses/benefits from services and infrastructure quite a bit more than a person living in a $500,000 property. Wealthy people may not often be direct users of services like police, transit, or affordable housing programs, etc, but they benefit indirectly front the social and economic stability that those services and programs provide.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by the_only_turek_fan

Are we talking provincial level or municipal?

I think nurses are doctors can take a 3-5% pay cut. My wife is a physician and god bless her she does great work but we will be fine if she took a 10-20k pay cut a year.

Nurse OT abuse is a problem.

I would cut all arts funding. Not sure if this is a provincial or municipal action.

I would institute a 2-3% cut across all departments.

I am not advocating draconian cuts here. I think 2-5% of property tax relief would go along way for people.

The problem is that even freezing property tax right now still has the city in a bind, let alone lowering them. Most city departments haven't been allowed to grow in several years as it is, yet the city keeps growing giving them more and more work. They're stretched thin, not allowed to hire enough people, and now there's effectively a ban on OT as well. Gonna have to give up something if you want cuts like that, say goodbye to potholes getting filled, roads getting re-paved, and crosswalks getting painted.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by Amethyst

Yeah, all those things would make my life worse and the few dollars I save a month in property taxes would do nothing to mitigate that. I won't be voting for a candidate with that plan.

I don’t have the exact number but say that my property taxes are $3,000 a year ($250 a month). Saving $60 to $150 a year (2-5%) will have virtually no impact on my budget. I’ll add, the folks that are really getting pinched in today’s economy are likely renting, not owning. So it wouldn’t really impact them at all.

It’s also important to note that a fair chunk of that amount is paid to the province in the form of education taxes. So to achieve that 5% reduction means cutting the municipal portion by closer to 8%.

And this is in a year when housing prices have actually gone up as well (which doesn’t mean taxes wil change because of revenue neutral but does mean people likely have some equity if they truly need to sell).

[MarchHare]

The City could literally cut my property tax bill to $0, a completely unrealistic 100% tax break, and it wouldn't make any discernable difference whatsoever to my household purchasing power. I pay $130/mo in property taxes for my 2BR condo in the Beltline. I split that expense 50-50 with my wife, so I'm personally paying $65/month in property taxes. If I got a pay raise that increased my salary by $65/month, I wouldn't even notice the change.

My quality of life would almost certainly be improved by paying slightly higher taxes (to a point) and having better-funded municipal services in return.

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by the_only_turek_fan

Are we talking provincial level or municipal?

I think nurses are doctors can take a 3-5% pay cut. My wife is a physician and god bless her she does great work but we will be fine if she took a 10-20k pay cut a year.

Nurse OT abuse is a problem.

I would cut all arts funding. Not sure if this is a provincial or municipal action.

I would institute a 2-3% cut across all departments.

I am not advocating draconian cuts here. I think 2-5% of property tax relief would go along way for people.

Go tell the union that. See how that goes. See which position holds after a few months.

[the_only_turek_fan]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

The City could literally cut my property tax bill to $0, a completely unrealistic 100% tax break, and it wouldn't make any discernable difference whatsoever to my household purchasing power. I pay $130/mo in property taxes for my 2BR condo in the Beltline. I split that expense 50-50 with my wife, so I'm personally paying $65/month in property taxes. If I got a pay raise that increased my salary by $65/month, I wouldn't even notice the change.

My quality of life would almost certainly be improved by paying slightly higher taxes (to a point) and having better-funded municipal services in return.

Well my property tax is about 800 a month and I feel that it is disproportionately too much.

I feel like a lot of people don’t have enough skin in the game.

[PaperBagger'14]

Originally Posted by the_only_turek_fan

Well my property tax is about 800 a month and I feel that it is disproportionately too much.

I feel like a lot of people don’t have enough skin in the game.

There is another option, if you don't want to pay ~10k a year in property tax. Move to a place where you don't pay 10k a year in property tax.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by the_only_turek_fan

I personally don’t think the average household can sustain the tax bill that keeps raising from every level of government.

This is my fundamental issue. There is wayyyy too much tax in this country.

Inflation adjusted city spending per capita dropped during Nenshi's tenure.

It's very important to look at how taxes are collected as well. Home owners bear a larger share now largely for two reasons:

1. The commercial property tax base collapsed along with the oil industry, an externality to municipal influence
2. The provincial government took funding away from the cities

[Hockeyguy15]

Rich guy complains taxes are unfair. I am shocked by this development.

[Roger]

Originally Posted by the_only_turek_fan

Well my property tax is about 800 a month and I feel that it is disproportionately too much.

I feel like a lot of people don’t have enough skin in the game.

It seems a bit dramatic that you pay $800/mo, and are calling for a 2-5% reduction. What will you really do with $16-$40/mo? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that saving that amount of money is not worthwhile, I'm just saying that for a guy whose property is worth that much, what will you really do with that small amount of money? That's literally a subsidized bus pass for a senior, or a pothole filled on Main St., or an extra cop on duty on Saturday night.

I get how we've nickle and dimed ourselves into high taxes, and how we all want to pay less taxes, but seriously, municipal (and provincial) taxes are what actually gives us the lifestyle we enjoy. Roads, schools, health care... It's just such BS when guys like Farkas come along and claim that they can just stop charging us for the things we want.

Maybe you don't want those things, but most of the rest of us do. I can literally think of one time in my adult life that a tax cut made a difference. When Klein stopped charging AHC premiums. That was suddenly some extra money in my pocket. But now, 15-20 years later, where we at with that, anyway? Was that really a good decision?

I sincerely hope that Calgary notifies Farkas that we know he's full of crap, via the ballot box tomorrow. This is a pretty important election, IMO.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by the_only_turek_fan

Are we talking provincial level or municipal?

I think nurses are doctors can take a 3-5% pay cut. My wife is a physician and god bless her she does great work but we will be fine if she took a 10-20k pay cut a year.

Nurse OT abuse is a problem.

I would cut all arts funding. Not sure if this is a provincial or municipal action.

I would institute a 2-3% cut across all departments.

I am not advocating draconian cuts here. I think 2-5% of property tax relief would go along way for people.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Rich Ignorant and uneducated guy complains taxes are unfair. I am shocked by this development.

Fyp

Anyone who lives in a $1.5 million dollar home and is whining about cutting less than fifty dollars a month from their property tax is not rich. Sounds house poor to me. Could probably use some financial literacy help too.

[Hockeyguy15]

Some of the most well off people I know are also the cheapest. Don't mistake being cheap for being poor.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Some of the most well off people I know are also the cheapest. Don't mistake being cheap for being poor.

He admitted himself most households can’t afford taxes. I’m guessing there’s some personal bias slipping through there. It’s clear from his posts it’s not because of concern for his fellow calgarian.

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

He admitted himself most households can’t afford taxes. I’m guessing there’s some personal bias slipping through there. It’s clear from his posts it’s not because of concern for his fellow calgarian.

He also said his wife could take a 10-20k pay cut and they would be fine.

Maybe his wife doesn't need to take a pay cut and he can just think of it as covering his property taxes.

[Cappy]

Oh no, he can pay it. His wife's a physician. He just doesn't want to. Having a beautiful city (with art and parks) be damned because him and his wife just vacation somewhere beautiful every 4 months

[AFireInside]

Originally Posted by the_only_turek_fan

Are we talking provincial level or municipal?

I think nurses are doctors can take a 3-5% pay cut. My wife is a physician and god bless her she does great work but we will be fine if she took a 10-20k pay cut a year.

Nurse OT abuse is a problem.

I would cut all arts funding. Not sure if this is a provincial or municipal action.

I would institute a 2-3% cut across all departments.

I am not advocating draconian cuts here. I think 2-5% of property tax relief would go along way for people.

So you're advocating for saving the average person 8- $20/month? Not sure that will do much of anything.

Doctors offered a 5% cut across the board. The UCP wouldn't be even sit down with them. Don't think it has much to do with your property taxes either.

Nurse OT abuse being a problem is an easy issue to fix if you have a competent government. However that's a provincial issue. It's also a tiny drop in the bucket.

If you have issue with provincial spending don't look at the war room, money spent on a pipeline everyone knew wasn't being built, or the recent acquisition of a refinery. Also their accounting seemed to somehow lose and additional billion as well.

Seems like a most of the your problems are actually with the provincial government. Think about about that when you vote next.

[corporatejay]

Please continue telling Turek what he should do with his money.

It's his/his family he can do whatever he wants. He doesn't owe or anyone anything. If he wants a reduction who are you to disagree. Maybe he doesn't give a #### about art. He's subsidizing your luxuries.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by Makarov

That actually strikes me as quite unlikely. I think that, generally speaking, a person living in a $1,500,000 property uses/benefits from services and infrastructure quite a bit more than a person living in a $500,000 property. Wealthy people may not often be direct users of services like police, transit, or affordable housing programs, etc, but they benefit indirectly front the social and economic stability that those services and programs provide.

I'm not sure I entirely agree with your statement but generally speaking this is why I'm fine with a social net and higher taxes. I don't have to live in a gated community.

[Roughneck]

Taking a $20K paycut to save ~$500 in property taxes is...weird.