14.6 Million Dollars to be Given to the Calgary Zoo, Pending Approval From the City

Jordan Allatt

Analytical Reporter


The Calgary zoo is planning to continue construction of an Antarctic exhibit, just as soon as it receives $14.46 million from the city. The city approved a $30 million grant back in 2005, but has withheld almost half of the sum, since then and the zoo is hoping the city council will turn over the cash so they can begin the project in January. The project will cost an estimated $24.5 million dollars, and will house Antarctica’s most beloved citizens: penguins. The city hopes that with construction of the new facility, tourism will increase as people flock from all over to view the flightless birds. Read the full Calgary Sun article bellow, and check back in mid-December to see if the city gives the go ahead on this project.


http://www.calgarysun.com/news/alberta/2009/12/01/11990071-sun.html

24 Million Dollars to Pay for Artificial Turf

Jordan Allatt

Analytical Reporter


4.5 million dollars will be going towards putting artificial turf on local sports fields in Calgary. During this weeks budget debates, the city council voted to use money raised from the sale of the cities EMS equipment to the province of Alberta, to fund the conversion. The sale should account entirely for meeting the 4.5 million dollar quota, and therefore the artificial turf will not affect the purposed tax increase (sitting right now at 4.8%). What has had an impact on next year’s budget deficit is the cities spending of 3 million dollars earlier this year to replace the grass at Shouldice Park with artificial turf. This is mentioned at the end of the article bellow:


http://www.calgaryherald.com/Calgary+city+council+finds+million+artificial+turf/22569

And information on the park can be found in greater detail hear:

http://content.calgary.ca/CCA/City+Hall/Business+Units/Recreation/Locate+by+Facility/Athletic+Parks/NW+Athletic+Parks/Shouldice+Artificial+Turf+Fields.htm

Calgarians Should Expect a 5% Tax Increase

Jordan Allatt


Analytical Reporter


The property owners of Calgary will be facing about a five percent increase on their taxes, a percent lower then what was projected, says Mayor Bronconnier. City council will be debating the budget later in the month. The council must increase taxes to account for a 44 million dollar projected revenue shortfall in the 2010 budget. A 5 percent increase would add about $48 a year to a home owner’s bill, while the originally projected 6.1 percent increase would add roughly $69 yearly. This $44 million revenue gap is being covered by reducing all of the cities departments (except police) budget by 1.7%, and not filling jobs vacated due to the recession. The debates on the cities budget are scheduled to begin on the 23rd of this month. This information is taken from a Calgary Herald article which can be found in full bellow......

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Calgary+property+hike+pegged/2200482/story.html
And you can find the cities budget updates right hear, all month long

Taxes, Taxes, and more Cuts

Stephanie Watt

Opinion Reporter

The final call on the tax estimates for 2010 are now being said to stay at 4.8%. It has been a struggle though, city transit services have been cut back, less paving is to be expected and 30 city workers are also being fired to keep 4.8% a reality. The city of Calgary’s officials are proud to have the budget remaining lower then the original 6.1% they anticipated but they know that there is a chance of add-ons. City Staff will be meeting with the Alderman next week to talk about additional cuts and do some final budget deliberating.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Calgary+trims+jobs+limit+hike+proposed+budget/2215626/story.html

Answers To “Difficult Questions” Needed

Kaitlin MacLeod-Rogers

Opinion Reporter

Is the City of Calgary spending your tax dollars wisely? Ricky Leong of The Calgary Sun doesn’t think so. In a column for the Sun dated November 17^th, Leong writes that municipal government is riddled with projects he calls are the “epitome of waste.” An example of this careless spending, he points out, is the video campaign on the city’s website to “convince us we should accept tax increases without a fight.” More importantly, he points to the numbers, themselves, as being misleading and untruthful. The city has saved taxpayers a 0.2% property tax increase (down to 4.8% from the proposed 5%) by reducing services like transit, a total savings of “dozens of millions of dollars.” Yet the projected operating budget for 2010 is slated to rise by $123 million over 2009. Leong says celebrating a reduction in taxes for citizens is “bend[ing] the truth.” He then asks city administrators to answer the following questions:

Would it be cheaper for the city to outsource such services as garbage collection, snow clearing and parks maintenance?

· Is there a better way to schedule workers and equipment to increase efficiency at Calgary Transit?

· Can laws be changed so municipal cemeteries can be privatized?

· Do we need hundreds upon hundreds of new police and bylaw officers?

Once practical answers are given to these difficult questions, he says, “only then can they truly claim they’ve tried to spend your money wisely.”

http://www.calgarysun.com/news/columnists/ricky_leong/2009/11/17/11772396-sun.html

Missing Money from Local's Accounts

Nicole Butz

News Reporter

The city has withdrawn extra money from hundreds of homeowner’s bank accounts with no warning. Due to this they have sent out apology letters. Every month, to cover their municipal taxes, property owners enrolled in the city’s tax installment payment plan will make automated payments. In November certain people must pay extra in order to ensure their bill is fully paid by the end of the year. This is usually new clients or people who missed a payment. Regularly the city will send out advisory letters to people who need to pay more but that did not happen this year. Instead, they withdrew amounts of several hundred dollars from hundreds of taxpayer's accounts. The apology letter went out last week according to city spokesperson Paul Wan. The system has been corrected so that this does not happen again.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2009/11/20/calgary-tipps-city-hall-property-taxes.html

Tax Hike Looks Inevitable

Sunjeev Prasad

News Reporter

Even though Calgarians are facing a tax hike of 4.79% in the upcoming tax season it could have been much worse had no action taken place. City council put the wheels in motion back in March and managed to decrease the hike from 11.2% to 4.79% which will surely relieved local taxpayers given the current economic climate. Though this is already a significant decline in the rate hike a number of council members were still in favour of lowering the hike as far as 2% but this would not be possible without significantly decreasing services. A number of other proposals were made by city council members including a reduction in public library funding by 1.7% and even an attempt to lower the ill favoured LRT parking rates from $3 to $1 was shot down by the council. It is likely that the increase in municipal taxes will hover around the 4.79% range since the budget is officially due before the years end.

http://www.calgarysun.com/news/alberta/2009/11/24/11900936-sun.html