Votes: Budget & Taxes

Passed by Council 9-6 on November 22, 2024

The 2024 budget includes a 3.6% increase to property taxes, with an average 5.5% increase for homeowners. Councillor Sharp is disappointed by this outcome, as it adds financial pressure on Calgarians already facing rising costs.

Throughout the budget process, Councillor Sharp proposed several amendments to ease the burden, including reducing senior leadership spending, reintroducing the Finance & Budget Committee, alleviating the tax shift from businesses to homeowners, and delaying lower-priority projects. Unfortunately, all of these amendments were rejected by Council.

Without these measures to improve affordability, Councillor Sharp could not support the budget and will continue to push for smarter spending and greater transparency in future budget discussions.

Motion: That Council direct Administration to keep the estimated property tax increase to existing tax payers to no more than the 3.6% in 2025 (estimated at 5.5% for residential and 1.4% for non-residential) and 3.1% (estimated to result in a 5.0% increase for residential and 0.9% for non-residential taxpayers) in 2026 that Council has already approved

Passed by Council 8-7 on February 27, 2024

Councillor Sharp did not support this recommendation, which directs Administration to hold property tax increases at the levels that previously Council approved as part of its four year budget, which she also opposed.

Councillor Sharp did not support these increases in 2022 and does not support them now. They would come as a further increase on top of the 7.8% that Council already approved for this year. These are still tax increases, and they will still add an additional financial burden for households and businesses that continue to struggle with affordability. 

Motion: That Council direct Administration to find reasonable operating budget reductions to either reduce the property tax required or allow for consideration of select additional investments in priority areas.

Passed by Council 13-2 on February 27, 2024

Councillor Sharp has been advocating for Administration to find efficiencies and sensible ways to lower The City's spending since taking office in 2021, and as such, she supported this recommendation.

However, she would have preferred to see Council take this action before increasing taxes by 7.8% for 2024. Calgarians will continue to feel the effects of this increase in future years--the best time to start looking for savings is before approving additional spending. 

Defeated by Council 8-7 on January 30, 2024

Councillor Sharp and six other councillors sponsored this Notice of Motion that would have directed City Administration to look inwards and cut costs in an effort to ease the 7.8% property tax increase approved by Council in November. 

The motion asked Administration to identify $23.1 million in savings to rebate the portion of the tax increase caused by the business-to-residential tax share shift back to residential taxpayers. 

Councillor Sharp belives it would have been possible to find these savings without directly impacting the frontline City services that Calgarians depend on. Without direction to do so, savings such as this won't be found. 

Passed by Council 9-6 on November 22, 2023

The approval of this budget, which includes a 7.8% increase to the property taxes collected by The City, comes as a disappointment to Councillor Sharp.

While the exact amount that everyone pays in property tax depends on the assessed value of their property, Councillor Sharp knows this is a lot of added pressure on Calgarians when costs are already rising. She proposed or seconded ten different amendments to reduce the pressure on already struggling households. 

These amendedments included creative solutions to reduce the impact of the tax shift from businesses, to delay lower priority projects, and to cut spending without affecting the top priorites of Ward 1 residents, which are safety and affordability. All of them were defeated by Council. 

Without these measures to improve affordability for Calgarians, Councillor Sharp could not support this budget. 

Passed by Council 10-5 on November 25, 2022

Councillor Sharp supported a number of amendments to the budget but ultimately voted no, recognizing that Calgarians can't afford higher taxes wtih costs already rising. 

Passed by Council 11-4 on November 24, 2021