Tax Increases Symptom of Philosophy

November 7, 2008

Editor, The Lethbridge Herald
P.O. Box 670 Lethbridge, AB T1J 3Z7

Editor:

There have been many letters recently on the state of our municipal finances. Most seem to resolve that taxation levels in Lethbridge are out of line and are so because of improper money management. But I would suggest that taxation, or more to the point the rate of increase in taxation, and the financial tools (Municipal Rate Stabilization Reserve) believed necessary to mitigate those increases are not the disease but a symptom.

According to a recent Herald article, (Tax hike starts at 3.9%, Gerald Gauthier, November 3) our City Council is now in deliberations around a minimum 3.9% tax increase, and according to sources quoted in that article, as much as half of that increase ($5 million) results from pressures of growth including: new parks, emergency services, transit and infrastructure maintenance.

I think it reasonable to ask how this can be. If our city is growing (people moving into Lethbridge and presumably becoming taxpayers), how is it that our tax base is not increasing sufficiently to mitigate the cost of that growth? If our population is growing (8.7% since 2005) it would seem reasonable that there are more of us to share the cost (tax). So why is that our proportional share of total tax is not at least remaining constant?

I suggest that the continuous increase in revenue requirements has more to do with our urban design philosophy than with ineptitudes in financial management. The longer we persist in accommodating growth (population) by building new suburbs the higher will spiral our total bill. The more infrastructure that is needed to interconnect fringe developments with each other and the existing core, the more we will all have to pay. The bigger the footprint the more expensive the boot. If we want to find a way to live within our collective means we must earnestly seek a way to live within our existing infrastructure, our existing urban footprint.