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Mayor’s letter with tax bills raising eyebrows

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – When you get your tax bill in the mail, you might find something extra, and it’s not the impending tax increase.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi has sent along a letter explaining how property taxes work but some are calling the figures he included inaccurate.

Peter McCaffrey is with Common Sense Calgary and calls the letter a taxpayer-funded advertisement full of misleading information.

While it’s common to have a brochure to explain how the tax process works, McCaffrey believes getting one from a politician trying to justify tax increases is odd.

“To have the mayor write a letter on city letterhead, and that letter is funded and paid for by taxpayers, trying to justify the massive tax increases that arrived in people’s mailboxes is pretty unprecedented. On top of that, the claims in the letter themselves are problematic.”

One of the biggest issues McCaffrey has with the letter is the claim that council has found $740 million in savings.

He added what the city and average Calgarians consider as savings are not the same thing.

“If the city plans to increase spending by a certain amount and then, in the budget, they change that to increase spending by a little bit less. They count the difference as savings. Spending is still going up, it’s just going up by what was less than originally planned.”

Another claim McCaffrey takes issue with is one stating spending increasing has gone up by less than inflation-population growth. He said the city doesn’t use the standard CPI measurement.

McCaffrey said savings are found through efficiencies and by cutting spending.

660 NEWS reached out to the mayors’ office.

“The letter is a way of telling the story about supporting our business community and telling the story of how Calgary arrived at this year’s tax rate.” – Office of Mayor Naheed Nenshi

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