For almost as long as Alberta has been a province, there has been an association of its cities, towns, villages and hamlets to advocate for them. For the first time, the AUMA is actively taking its advocacy role to the public, to let all Albertans know why the relationship that municipalities have with the provincial government must radically change.
Today, about 85 per cent of Albertans live in some sort of urban setting. Most of the things you think of when you ask yourself “What do I get for my taxes?” are delivered by municipalities.
Yet in Alberta, only about 10 per cent of all taxes you pay goes to the municipalities to put water in your house, take away the sewage and garbage, put in sidewalks and streets and traffic lights, keep police, fire and ambulance services on the ready for you, plus build and maintain the parks and green spaces, and the cultural and recreational services that make life pleasant.
In fact, if the role of government is supposed to make life pleasant and safe for people — outside of the military, public education and health care — municipal governments do most of the heavy lifting in Canada. With no more than 10 cents on your tax dollar.
Linda Sloan, president of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, visited Red Deer on Tuesday as part of a provincial tour aligned with its historic public campaign.
AUMA figures show that provincial grants to the association’s 277 members come to about $1 billion a year — around 2.6 per cent of the provincial budget.
These grants, plus your property taxes and the fees you pay here and there for municipal services, make up the revenue for municipal budgets.
Needless to say, funding has been barely adequate for the growth Alberta has experienced as Canada completed its migration from rural to urban in character.
When you consider how much of Alberta’s water lines, streets and sidewalks date back to the 1950s, you can see a huge crunch coming when cities must not only grow new services and infrastructure, but replace a huge sector of old infrastructure that has worn out.
You cannot simply tell the municipalities to raise their own taxes if they need more money.
Taxing property values has reached its useful limit, especially when you note that the province itself increased the education allotment on property taxes in Red Deer by 7.8 per cent, then 9.8 per cent, and another 8.4 per cent in the last three years.
The province must surely recognize the limit of property tax increases has been pretty well reached.
The whole structure of how municipalities finance their operations needs to change. And that’s the theme of the AUMA tour.
The Municipal Sustainability Initiative, begun in 2008 by Ed Stelmach, will soon end. The province is undertaking a major rewrite of the Education Act now and the AUMA wants the same accomplished for the Municipal Government Act.
Now is a good time for a new paradigm for cities and towns. The AUMA, says Sloan, wants to talk.
Sloan claims the AUMA has no specific agenda in mind, but you have to assume that a starting point is the elimination of the provincial education tax on your property. That’s a core service that must come from basic taxation.
Let’s take this further. If municipalities are getting three per cent of the Alberta budget, dedicate a three per cent surtax to Alberta income taxes and energy royalties to municipalities for basic services — and decimate the property tax.
If Red Deer wants extras, like a 50-metre pool or a museum, another library branch or a world-class Alexander Way, city councillors can get permission from local ratepayers based on local priorities through the property tax for them.
When these projects are completed, that portion of the property tax disappears, and we move forward.
That way, people ought to have no problem understanding what we get for our taxes. Outside of the federal and provincial governments, anyway.
Greg Neiman is an Advocate editor.