BANFF – Pressure from residents and businesses is pushing Banff’s elected officials to get the proposed municipal tax increase below double digits.
In a move against council’s historical philosophy, administration has been tasked with finding ways to get the tax increase from 10.73 per cent to 9.73 per cent as council’s budget talks resume on Wednesday, Jan. 17.
Wanda Bogdane, executive director of Banff and Lake Louise Hospitality Association, said a double digit increase is far beyond what the association and members can support.
“An excessive tax hike could hinder our competitive edge, discourage new investments, and strain both residents and businesses already navigating uncertain times,” she said.
The total municipal tax levy for 2024 would be about $24.9 million.
A 9.73 per cent tax increase on an average residential home assessed at $467,100 equates to $110 a year or just over $9 a month.
The draft operating budget as it currently stands predicts an 8.36 per cent increase in 2025 and 4.5 per cent in 2026, which is based on an estimated two per cent inflationary costs but not before any new asks come before council.
Coun. Kaylee Ram convinced the majority of council to have administration come up with recommended cuts based on their in-depth knowledge of the budget.
Initially, she wanted two per cent across the board, but a series of changes throughout Jan. 10 budget talks, had the tax hike at 10.73 per cent, so she settled for one per cent more.
Every one per cent municipal tax increase is equal to approximately $226,000.
“Businesses cannot eat up all of the costs,” said Ram.
“We’re seeing inflationary increases across the board – seniors, families, workers all feeling this weight.”
Coun. Ted Christensen wants to see the tax increase lowered even further, while Mayor Corrie DiManno and Coun. Grant Canning were both opposed to tasking administration with finding further cuts, believing that is council’s job and is past practice.
Both said they were happy with where the tax increase had landed following almost 48 hours of service review and 8.5 hours on day one of budget deliberations.
“I am very comfortable with the level of service we provide and I think we do it in a very efficient and effective way,” said Canning.
“For 11 months of the year, we hear mostly about things we should be doing, and then for one month a year we hear, ‘oh, but you have to cut our taxes’, and those two things are a bit of a dichotomy because you can’t really do both.”
Coun. Chip Olver was successful in cutting one per cent from the 2024 budget by redistributing $226,000 from 2024 into 2025-26 as part of the phase-out of the current capital reserve transfer reduction stemming from COVID-19 in 2020.
The amounts now are $258,500 in 2024, $552,300 in 2025, and $642,700 in 2026.
While the starting point for tax increases would be higher in 2025-26 as a result, Olver said she hopes there would be more time for residents and businesses to recover from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic by then.
“We’re still transferring the full amount to the capital budget but weighting how much we transfer to the budget years of 2025 and 2026 because we have more capacity in those years than in 2024,” said Olver.
Coun. Barb Pelham supported the move, though noted she was conflicted about deferring contributions to capital reserves.
“I think I am willing to go along with this for now, but I think next July there’s going to be a really creative conversation about trying to pull back so that we’re not in this pickle a year from now,” she said.
DiManno said Olver’s suggestion was tempting, but just kicks the problem further down the road.
“I do worry that this kind of prolongs the situation we’re in with these double digit increases because we’re just increasing the amount that we’re looking at next year,” she said.
“We don’t don’t know what asks are going to be happening based on our strategic goals and what we will need to be looking at for next year.”
To cut about another half a per cent, DiManno was successful in her pitch to pay the $100,000 for further consultation and a strategic environmental assessment for the Banff Community Plan from the budget stabilization reserve instead of tax support.
“Precedent has been set where we have taken from budget stabilization to help fund community plan consultation,” she said.
“I know it’s not ideal but I’m trying to get that tax increase reduced and this is a precedent that we have.”
A pitch by Coun. Hugh Pettigrew to freeze council wages and per diem rates until after the next municipal election was soundly defeated.
