Calgary City Council is proposing an 8% property tax increase…Nope, wish I was just fucking with ya…but it’s a coming and there’s not a got damned thing you can do about it.
Thanks Jyoti, you complete clown!
Hey…aside from my immediate outrage on this, I do recommend that you read through this in its entirety and you can then fully share with outrage of your own.
I mean, it’s not bad enough that we didn’t just get kicked in the nuts with the Liberals giving a Tax Break to buy votes in Atlantic Canada, supported by the Coalition Bloc Party…
It’s not bad enough that we’re not living through the highest interest rates in 40 years.
It’s not bad enough that there are 1.5 Million Canadians hitting food banks per month.
Not even bad enough that you’re probably so afraid of public transport, you’ll pay 20x as much to Uber.
I dare you to go through the rationalization on this and not be just the tiniest bit homicidal.
First off…services have turned to complete trash…including collection on trash.
We used to get a couple of burly dudes hucking unlimited bags of garbage into their compactors…now, that this is automated, we get this same service, once per week, with a black bin that’s too gross to even open up on a sunny day.
Street Cleaning over the last 3 years has been abysmal at best…when’s the last time you even heard about the ‘Snow Route Parking Ban’?
Is this even a thing anymore?
Personally…I live on a busy main street in the NW. It’s been deemed a Snow Route - for buses, so you cannot park here on excessive snow days. A bit inconvenient, to be sure…but if it was handled properly, overall a good thing.
Problem is, IT HASN’T BEEN!
3 years ago, it was so bad that I had to manually shovel myself out several times, never had the street cleaned up to curb and was buried in, in my driveway.
2 years ago, I started cleaning the street where I parked so that I wouldn’t bottom out and cause vehicular damage…do you know what this got me?
Canada Post taking up my spot when I’d leave the house & City Police parking speed traps in this space because it was the only place they could park, without being trapped by snow, so…
Last year I said, “Fuck em”, and just left well enough alone.
For the most part, I feel fortunate to at least have the double lanes of traffic cleared on my street but this service price has continued to rise with property taxes while the service has jumped off of a cliff!
I couldn’t water my lawn for the majority of summer, because this service too seemingly shit the proverbial sheets. Water Bans!
Hundreds of dollars of yearly grass repair and perennials lost without water and it wasn’t even that spectacular of a summer by way of heat…Calgary totally got shafted on Global Boiling this year, my friend!
And, for the last 8 friggen months, my household water stinks and tastes gross. It’s barely consumable and I gag most mornings when I hop into the shower.
All of this, is what the City considers - managing finances responsibly.
Higher Property Taxes with Worse Service is not a value and is not managing anything…certainly not to a degree anybody would consider ‘responsibly’.
But they want to compare the lower property taxes in Calgary to what other cities get…how’s bout NO!
How’s bout you compare your services to what you used to provide, see them in a large decline and then FIX THIS!
Instead…they want to Modernize the Government:
2 Million Clams for Equity Diversity Inclusion & Belonging…while their benefits state the exact opposite.
They’re not looking to have the right people with the right skills to deliver services…they’re looking to include more people who walk around with blue hair and bones in their noses.
IF they were the most qualified, sure…hire them.
Don’t just hire them because they have blue hair and bones in their noses.
Managing Operation Risk:
$27 Mill to RAMP UP a response to inflation.
You’re going to pay more to combat the inflation that is caused by ramping up a response to inflation.
Do you see how this works?
Enhancing Flexibility of Ward Budgets:
Maybe…you will be able to get ahold of somebody quicker…maybe they will respond to your needs…maybe not. But FUCK IT, let’s drop another $1.6 Million on it!
This is insanity.
Setting a program in place which has no current measurement with no metrics to view actual success or failure is not responsible finance management; it’s the exact opposite of responsible finance management.
There’s a lot to read and unpack in this report…I encourage you to do so. Pour a stiff drink before hand and keep the bottle close…because the most important part about how this shitshow actually happens when you hit the end of the report…how this Adjustment Process Works:
Step 1…sets a plan and a budget.
Meaning…before they even had an idea of what they want to try and achieve…they’d already decided to increase your taxes.
Every other step that follows is rationalizing it.
I get pretty pissed when the justification for only raising taxes by 'X' amount is that "we're doing better than other jurisdictions". Freeland does this constantly thereby not having to justify how shitty she is at her job. "I know we're only 3 trillion in debt, but compared to the other G7 countries it's almost like we're in the black".
For municipalities to follow this logic and spit out their own version of it is beyond comprehension.
Does she need more tax dollars for drag queen story hours?! Recall GONEdek ...the sooner the better.