The Calgary City Council has dramatically reduced property tax rate increase for 2018, in a bid to help residents cope with what Mayor Neheed Nenshi has described as a “fragile economic recovery.”
The rate was supposed to increase by 4.7%, but the council ruled on Wednesday to peg it at 0.9%. “Administration has worked collectively to find solutions to reduce the municipal property tax rate and close the budget gap through a combination of cost savings and service reductions using a least harm approach to help reduce the impact on citizens,” said Chief Financial Officer Eric Sawyer.
However, property owners will still see an increase of 3.8% on the median 2018 municipal residential property tax bill. The increase constitutes a 2.9% from the deferral of 2017 property tax, and the aforementioned 0.9% property tax increase for 2018.
Last year, Calgary property owners were granted two one-time rebates, shown as a single credit, on the 2017 property tax bill. This effectively reduced the tax rate increase for 2017 to zero and deferred the 2017 increase to 2018.
According to the city government, property tax bylaws are based on a combined municipal and provincial 2018 property tax rate increase of 0.2% for residential properties and 1.0% for non-residential properties.
“This means that with the removal of 2017 rebates (valued at $51) and the 0.2 per cent combined tax rate increase (valued at $6), a typical household assessed at $480,000 will see a combined increase of $57 annually on their 2018 property tax bill,” said the government in a statement. Property tax bills will be mailed at the end of May and are due June 29.
