Lorne Gunter: Edmonton council keeps ramping up taxpayer burden

As a parting gift before it broke for its summer recess, city council decided to raise Edmontonians' property taxes every year for the next 20 in order to build up a separate reserve fund that can only be used for "infrastructure" maintenance and repair.

What if council decides Edmonton needs a new fleet of electric buses? That's probably infrastructure.

More hundreds of millions for the city's eco theme-park development at Blatchford? Probably.

So, in actuality, this is just another tax grab masquerading as some special fund for infrastructure. The definition of infrastructure is so broad just about any expenditure could be covered. That makes the "dedicated" part a farce and reduces the planned tax hikes to just another shabby cash grab.

Under the plan endorsed by council, residents will see a property tax increase of 0.5 per cent each year for the next three years, followed by 0.75 per cent for the three years after that and finally a one per cent yearly increase from 2033 for at least another 14 years.

Administration sought a one per cent rise for the next three years, followed by 1.25 per cent for the three years after that, with a 1.5 per cent increase in perpetuity.

But I'm sure by now the administration knows council will never give them all they ask for. Council wants to be seen as standing up for taxpayers. So, administration over-asks knowing that council won't give them all they want. But in the end, council gives them all they needed in the first place.

Administration and the majority on council justified this tax grab by claiming the population growth the city has experienced in the last decade was putting strains on existing infrastructure.

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Ward Anirniq Coun. Erin Rutherford explained the renewal fund was necessary to bring the city's assets back to where they needed to be "and continue to grow as we know the city will continue to grow."

However, since 2006, population and inflation have grown by over 70 per cent. Meanwhile the city's tax revenues have skyrocketed by nearly 150 per cent, double the rate of inflation and population growth.

The city doesn't need more tax money for infrastructure, it needs to spend the money it already has more intelligently.

Bike lanes cost an average of $1 million per kilometre, particularly if they are separated from traffic by concrete barriers. Yet less than five per cent of Edmonton commuters use bikes to get to work or school.

The strain on property taxpayers is already enormous. Between 2000 and 2026, while city revenues were doubling, property taxes went from being 46 per cent of the city's annual revenues to 63 per cent. Today's property taxes are a much bigger slice of a much bigger pie.

The taxes to pay for the renewal fund would push property taxes up to as much as 68 per cent of city revenues.

If the city wants more money, it should consider increasing user fees and cutting its bloated payroll, which now makes up about 55 per cent of total municipal expenditures.

The latter, staff cuts, will never happen. The lefty majority on council would be disinclined to make local government smaller in the first place. In addition, most councillors owe their re-elections to Working Families Edmonton, the union-backed third-party organization that endorsed, organized for and gave money to most of our current councillors' campaigns.

But what about, for instance, transit fares? They could certainly go up. Fares account for $132 million of revenue against costs of $368 million for Edmonton Transit Service. That means fares cover just 36 per cent of the total cost of transit. And fewer than 10 per cent of Edmontonians are regular riders.

Why is it council's first instinct to pile an even greater burden on taxpayers?

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