Economist says change is key to fixing Calgary’s tax problem
Posted Jun 9, 2019 6:59 am.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) – Tax talk will dominate Calgary city hall bright and early Monday morning, as councillors are holding a special meeting.
The plan is to adopt a solution that will offer short term relief to businesses facing massive tax hikes this year, but this doesn’t mean the underlying problem is solved.
University of Calgary Associate Professor or Economics Trevor Tombe, believes a structural problem exists that needs a unique solution.
Council faces a tough decision here. There's no easy fix. I tend to think we should raise residential property taxes to ease the burden on business, but that's just me. It's a complex problem in need of thoughtful solutions. I wish #yyccc luck!
— Trevor Tombe (@trevortombe) June 7, 2019
Tombe advocates for a unified tax system that reduces the tax rate on businesses, and spreads it out more evenly across home owners.
“If we are concerned about the rising property tax liabilities on businesses, then we do need to think about shifting the burden.”
At the same time, some city councillors are asking for provincial help, which Tombe thinks is unrealistic.
“Calgary council can solve this problem if they want,” he said. “Of course that requires council confront the large political challenge of asking homeowners to pay more.”
Tombe said it’s a long term challenge, but we cannot hope for downtown office tower revenues to return to where they were, and we cannot keep loading the burden on other businesses.
