Budget 101

• Operating budget: the cost of running services each year.
• Capital budget: the cost of building and repairing things that last.
• Assessment: the City's estimate of what your property would have sold for on July 1 of the year before.
• Tax rate (mill rate): tax per $1,000 of assessed value. It is worked out after Council sets the dollars.
• Reserves: City savings, each set aside for a purpose.
• Tax-supported debt: borrowing repaid from property tax.
• Typical home: a single-family home at the median assessed value, $688,000 in 2027.

For a typical single-family home, the proposed budget adds about $53 a month to City bills in 2027. That is $37 more for municipal property tax and $16 more for water, wastewater, stormwater, waste and recycling.

The Province's part of the property tax bill is expected to fall by about $10 a month in 2027. So the full property tax bill goes up about $27 a month.

A typical condo would pay about $14 a month more in municipal property tax.

If you rent, you don't get a tax bill, but your building's owner does, and you use the same services as everyone else.

To estimate your own bill, use the City's property tax calculator.

The proposal raises property tax revenue by 15% in 2027, 10% in 2028, 7.7% in 2029 and 6% in 2030.

In dollars, a typical home's City bills would rise by about $50 a month each year. By 2030, that home would pay about $572 a month for municipal property tax and utilities together, about $200 more than today.

Water and waste rates were set separately in October. The property tax part is what Council is deciding now.

The City has two main budgets.

The operating budget, about $6 billion in 2027, runs services every day. Property tax pays about half of it. Utility bills, fares, fees and other revenue pay the rest.

The capital budget, about $20 billion over four years, builds and repairs things that last: pipes, roads, transit, fire halls and recreation centres. Grants, savings, developer levies and borrowing pay for it.

The two connect in two places. Each year the operating budget sets aside money for building and repair: $495 million in 2027. And when the City borrows, the loan payments come back to the operating budget, along with the cost of running whatever gets built.

The budget uses three kinds of money, and they can't stand in for each other.

• Ongoing money pays for things that repeat every year, like staff and bus service. It comes from property tax and other yearly revenue. It sets the tax increase, and once added, it stays.
• One-time money pays for things with an end date, like a pilot project. It comes mostly from the City's rainy-day fund and doesn't change the tax rate.
• Capital money builds things that last decades. It reaches your tax bill through loan payments and running costs.

The rule that follows: savings can pay for one-time items and construction, but not for an ongoing service. Pay for a service from savings and it stops when the savings run out.

Council decides how many dollars property tax needs to raise: $2.94 billion in 2027. It also decides how to split that between homes and businesses.

The tax rate is worked out afterward. It is the total divided by the value of all property in Calgary.

That's why a lower assessment doesn't mean a lower bill. If every home's value fell 3%, the rate would rise and the City would collect the same amount. What changes your bill, apart from the budget, is how your assessment moved compared with the typical home.

It's also why the municipal part of a typical home's bill rises 16.1% while the tax increase is 15%. Council is gradually shifting a small share of property tax from businesses to homes, and assessments changed differently for different kinds of property.

In 2026, a typical home paid about $229 a month in City property tax. Police was the largest single item at about $43. About $35 went into savings for future building and repair.

Fares, fees and grants pay part of the cost of many services, so this is only the part property tax covers.

Use the City's tax breakdown tool to see the breakdown for your own bill.

The City's explanation has three parts. Calgary has grown quickly. Costs have gone up. And for most of the last decade, tax increases were kept low.

By the City's estimate, if spending had kept pace with population growth and inflation since 2015, it would be about $800 million a year higher by 2026.

Capital spending stayed between 1.1 and 1.7 billion a year from 2016 to 2023. Meanwhile, the share of City infrastructure in poor or very poor condition rose from 2.7% in 2017 to 13.4% in 2026. That is about $20.8 billion worth, mostly roads and water pipes.

Administration says it looked for savings first, including a new vacancy management program.

Calgarians disagree about what to do next. Some say households are already stretched and the increase is too large. Others say it doesn't go far enough to catch up. Both are reasonable positions. The next section is a way to weigh them.

Every proposal to add or cut can be turned into a cost on your bill.

For a typical home in 2027, a 1% property tax increase is about $28 a year. Each 1 million of new ongoing spending is about $1.10 a year, every year. One-time spending doesn′t change the tax rate.And $100 million of construction paid by borrowing is about $8 a year.

Questions worth asking yourself:

• Which services do you use most, and are they keeping up?
• What would you add, and what would you cut to pay for it?
• If a service gets cut, who notices first?
• What would you pay each month for a service to improve?

My assessment went down. Why is my tax going up? Council sets the dollars, not the rate. When values fall across the city, the rate rises to raise the same total. Your bill goes up less than average if your value fell more than the typical home's.

Why not just use the City's savings? The City holds about $4.2 billion in reserves, but most of it is already promised to approved projects. Savings can pay for one-time items and construction, not for ongoing services. Using them to hold down this year's increase just moves it to next year.

Doesn't the budget show a $2 billion surplus? That figure comes from an accounting table that counts money collected for construction as revenue but doesn't count the construction as an expense in the same year. The City's own note says it doesn't mean there's extra money.

Why does the Province's part of my bill go down? For 2027 the Province set a fixed rate for three years. Because assessed values fell, the provincial part of a typical bill falls too. After 2027 it will rise or fall with your assessment.

Can the budget change after Council approves it? Yes. Council reviews the next year's budget every November.

Where do I find the full documents? At calgary.ca/budget.

Public submissions begin Monday, November 23. You can speak to Council in person or send written comments. Register at calgary.ca/budget.

You can also email the Ward 8 office at ward8@calgary.ca with "2027-2030 Budget" in the subject line.