We're here with you live to cover the second half of today's Council meeting, which will be discussing the City's property taxes for 2020.

#yyc #yyccc
As a reminder, currently taxes are going up by 8.9% this year.

We expect this will drop to 7.5% as the province announced last week they will be delaying their portion of the tax increase.

#yyc #yyccc
We have been calling for the entire 8.9% tax increase to be cancelled, but we haven't seen any indication that the City are interested in tax cuts.

Rather, the City is actually already planning increase spending.

#yyc #yyccc
This is failed Keynesian economics.

They forget that every $ the City spends is a $ they have to tax first, meaning Calgarians spend a $ less.

The only way that would "stimulate" the economy is if Council spends that money better than you would.

Yeah right.

#yyc #yyccc
City Staff are now listing all the things they could do to "help" Calgarians.

Every single proposal involves more spending and higher taxes.

No proposal involves reducing spending and cutting taxes.

#yyc #yyccc https://twitter.com/CBCScott/status/1247257189468606464
Lots of slides and talking points about how the current emergency is affecting the City's budget.

This is the only mention so far this meeting of how the emergency is affecting *Calgarians* budgets.

#yyc #yyccc
City Staff admit that the City has $2.6 billion in reserves.

#yyc #yyccc
When the City says "nearly all are restricted" what they actually mean is they've already decided to spend the money on things - such as the Green line.

They could decide *not* to spend the money on those things if they wanted, and use the money to reduce taxes.

#yyc #yyccc
Administration acknowledges that there is a significant amount of income/household support for Canadians in the federal package.

We need to scale back the size of city hall to avoid drownding taxpayers in tax hikes.

Yet, they're not really considering that option.
#yyc #yyccc
City Staff are recommending NO changes to their 9% tax increase.

They are suggesting only a short delay in when taxes will be due.

#yyc #yyccc
City Staff also trying to claim that 2021 tax increases will only be 1.5%.

Um, no... that's how much taxes will ALREADY go up by, based on decisions already made.

Any extra spending will increase taxes even further above that 1.5%.

#yyc #yyccc
Councillor @BigRedyyc points out that the City has $2.6 b in reserves, and the public will want to know why not unrestrict the restricted reserves?

City Staff don't really answer the question, they just say that the restricted money is already allocated to projects.

#yyc #yyccc
You can follow @CommonSenseYYC.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: