Nenshi proposes 4.5% tax hike

Mayor Naheed Nenshi says he has a plan to get this year's property tax increase down to 4.5 per cent while eliminating theparking fee atcity transitlots and keepingpolice and fire budgets intact.

With Calgary heading into 2011 with a projected deficit of $47.4 million, the mayor's proposal would see the average household pay an additional $4.50 per month, Nenshi's office said in a written release Monday.

By trimming costs in the mayor's office, eliminating a proposed $1.7-million employee gym at city hall and finding other efficiencies, Nenshi said he can get the tax hike more than two points lower than the 6.7 per cent proposed by city administrators earlier this month.

"We don't know everything.The 15 of us that sit around that table don't know everything.The 14,000 people who work at the city don't know everything. So if people come in with great ideas at that moment, we're pretty nimble. We'll figure out ways to incorporate those great ideas in our deliberations," Nenshisaid.

'We've heard a lot of interesting ideas, a couple of new ones for me' Mayor Naheed Nenshi

Nenshi's plan would also cut a proposed adult transit fare increase by half, preserve funding for Access Calgary Extra a $500,000-program that subsidizes transportation for Calgarians living on disability incomes and maintain the increasedfunding for snow and ice control that was agreed to earlier this year.

The mayor will ask council to approve a new innovation fund that would earmark money for pilot projects, such as new express busroutes for key destinations in the city, he said.

Members of the public who had budget ideas to contribute were invited to make five-minute presentations to council on Monday.

Among those who made presentations was Calgary anti-poverty activist Dan Meades. He emphasized the need to not increase the price of the low-income transit pass from $41.50 to $45 a month, and to actually decrease the price.

Nenshi's plan calls for a freeze in the price of the pass.

"The notion of raising the price of that pass to $45 is the difference between getting to work and not, is the difference between getting to the doctor and not," said Meades, director of Vibrant Communities Calgary.

Richard Truscott, director of Alberta affairs with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, urged city council to keep the "staggering" costs facing small businesses in mind during their deliberations.

"How did we get to a point where a small business pays four to five times what a resident does?" Truscott said. "I think it punishes entrepreneurship, it's keeping our small business owners down. It's not helping grow a vibrant, dynamic community [and] economy in Calgary."

Nenshi said he was impressed with the day's turnout.

"We've heard a lot of interesting ideas, a couple of new ones for me, a couple of real questions we have to ask administration, and that was really the purpose of today," Nenshi said. "So I'm very happy about how things are going."

Debate on the 2011 budget will continue for the rest of the week.