Here’s a lesson in the perils of politics, budget style.
Alberta Premier Alison Redford this week chastised Calgary city council for approving a property tax increase for 2012 of six per cent.
She said she considered the increase to be less than “fiscally conservative. It doesn’t make sense,” she told the Rotary Club of Calgary, according to the Calgary Herald.
But she also said it could take up to three years for the province and municipalities to come up with a sustainable funding formula.
That, obviously, means the pressure will mount significantly, on both the province and municipalities, before there is a solution.
In the meantime, municipalities continue to struggle with diminished provincial funding for a number of programs, and have deteriorating infrastructure, again because of dwindling provincial support. And all of that is a legacy of the Klein and Stelmach eras that Redford’s Conservative team must now carry the can for.
We’re all taxpayers, Redford reminded the Rotary Club, so we all carry the load.
But Redford should not forget that we all pay federal taxes, provincial taxes and municipal taxes in good faith, and we should reasonably expect that faith to be returned. When a higher level of government chooses to divert funds away from areas of support (like municipalities), has the faith been broken?
Should Redford throw stones through some glass houses, but not others? (Never mind that those stones will come flying back through hers.)
Surely if she supports Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s misguided and massively expensive prison-building initiative, she has little room to criticize municipalities that are just trying to make ends meet.
And how comfortable can she be with the province’s $3-billion deficit and all that implies for Alberta’s taxpayers, personal and corporate?
That Redford also embraces the federal government’s new health-care transfer formula, and the increased federal cash Alberta expects from that, also suggests there is a dual standard at work.
She is welcoming fiscal support from a higher level of government, but showing little perspective on the mess municipalities are in because her level of government has been parsimonious.
Reasonably, Redford has not had time to address the issues.
And Redford is right to set the tone now for conversations about funding over the longer term.
(And everyone is aware that Danielle Smith’s Wildrose Party has been extolling the hard line when it comes to spending, and gained support by doing it.)
Certainly every municipality in Alberta should be acutely aware of the squeeze the provincial government faces: both levels of government are dealing with the same body of taxpayers, and the last thing people want in an uncertain economy is to lose pace with the cost of living because taxes are taking a larger bite out of your income.
But municipalities can’t afford to be patient, if we want our quality of life maintained.
The tightened provincial purse strings and the waning tolerance of taxpayers to absorb the difference puts municipalities at the tipping point.
It’s up to Redford to find a fiscal balance that gives municipalities stability over the long term, that is equitable to cities, towns and counties large and small, and measures the contributions of taxpayers fairly.
And she needs to do it quickly. Three years is an eternity if you can’t pay your bills or fulfil the needs of your citizens.
John Stewart is the Advocate’s managing editor.