Cutting taxes should be city’s top priority
By Lethbridge Herald on March 5, 2025.
Editor,
Our house assessment went up $53,000 in just two years with no additions. Get real, Lethbridge, you money grubbing shysters! The house is decaying under my feet and needs new furnace/air conditioner. The roof has so many years on it that insurance gives you nothing for hail damage. Neighbouring houses have turned into multi tenant rentals. The new owners don’t cut their lawn or replace the roof. The renters overflow their garbage and recycling bins. Does Lethbridge take any of this in account? No, they go by city selling price in an insane market. The higher selling price won’t matter when we sell as we have to live in an inflated housing market.
Hopefully, the new council will put a halt to building monuments and conserve money. No, we don’t need them full time. Cut the taxes.
Fred Karg
Lethbridge
6-5
I agree that our taxes are too high and projected to increase dramatically. I’m concerned the city has not done enough to reduce spending and it’s time we elected a council that focuses on reducing our taxes. There will be residents that will be forced to sell as the cost of maintaining their home continues to rise while their income remains stagnant.
It’s not a case of the city not cutting spending it’s a case of the Province not funding the municipalities properly, just like our healthcare and education systems that are being put in a horrific mess and doctors and nurses continue to leave.
Of course our taxes are too high but it’s not the fault of our Mayors or councillors who always take the blame. It’s the fault of these Reformers who continue to help the rich steal the peoples oil and corporate tax wealth and underfund our municipalities putting them in a horrible mess. Why is that so hard to understand? We estimate that Albertans have lost $1.2 trillion since the Klein days and it hasn’t happened in Alaska or Norway. Nor was it happening under Lougheed.
I know exactly what you are talking about and have issues understanding the increases, which I believe have been impacted by national real estate/property management companies who have come to Lethbridge from other provinces/major cities and inflating prices for their own gains.
We now see national property management companies under investigation for inflating rental property prices in some cases because cities have subsidized housing for some low income renters, so they are taking advantage and abusing this for their own financial gains. I saw am advertisement for a room in the old Alex Arms Hotel, a dive . . . $900 per month?????
I have heard realtors in this city say for the past 5 years that Lethbridge house prices are too low and should be closer to Calgary prices . . . why?
Why would I pay the same price as a home in Calgary, when Lethbridge doesn’t come close to all the amenities, services, restaurant choices, etc….. Insanity! For them, it is all about money!
I do not understand the increases in Lethbridge, but I know things are going to get worse! At least $10 million – $15 million of your local property tax dollars go towards the impacts of the drug crisis, whether it is increased policing/fire/EMS/the Watch costs, funding non-profits dealing with the issues, housing costs, the shelter, the contractors who repair all the damage and clean up all the bio-hazards, the constant repairs to damages on city parks and buildings from these issues, and costs in other areas . . . no one understands what the total costs of this are and the city is not tracking the costs for this!
Everyone wants more services, but they do not want to pay for them! There is a large group of the give-me’s that thinks that funds just fall from the sky and there are endless amounts and since they do not work, they are always complaining to governments for more, and more and more, with little understanding of where those funds come from.
Even some in government do not get it . . . one administrative person commented on a project downtown a few years ago, that is was federally funded, so it is free money! There is no ‘free’ money . . . it all comes from the taxpayer!
I would also add that many of the issues do not come from the elected officials, but from the bureaucrats/administration, who often will not listen to the elected officials and do it their way! I have seen this several times in this city, so do not blame just the elected officials.
Many of those bureaucrats/administrators do not really understand that when they make mistakes, the taxpayers pay for it, not them! They are not accountable because they are not elected!
the mill rate of course is a real driver of municipal taxes, but of course that is also related to assessed property value.
while fed up makes good points as to what also drives up the tax rake, it is also a big part pf the problem that council after council in lethbridge have wasted large sums of money on dumb/shady land deals, absolutely stupid/pocket liner projects that are classic white elephants, and general waste…most or all of which require auditing.
the thing is, just like with all elections, we boot out the bums, only to get a new set of bums. in the case of federal elections, we punt the bums we voted in to replace the bums that were in, and then put back in the bums we punted for being bums because those we replaced them with were, again, bums.
Hopefully amongst all these bums we get lucky and find at least one that understands council is spending our money and be more hands on when they consider spending it. Our current and previous councils spent without fully understanding the impact of throwing cash at projects. They bought an airlines promise to start flying out of our airport and expanded the facility. How many flights to Tucson have we seen? Council listened to a small but vocal minority and built bike lanes downtown. How has that worked out? Council approved millions of dollars to but the new Agri Plex then let others manage the construction with no oversight. We will be paying for this debacle for many years to come. These are just some of the major expenditures approved by our elected officials which could have been avoided with due diligence and reduced the burden to us taxpayers. I am sure there are others big and small but they all add up. I’m hoping with the next group of “bums” we elect there is that special person who truly looks after how our money is spent.
yes, you underscore my concerns very well. i suppose where we are not eye to eye is that you still have hope, whereas i am utterly jaded. keeping this only to our councils, i cannot grasp how it is no matter who elect, we still get the same old waste and graft.
Every single municipality in Alberta whines about their taxes just like you guys do while Alaskans , because of their oil wealth pays no state taxes, and their property taxes are next to nothing. We didn’t have this problem under Lougheed when proper revenues were being collected and they don’t seem to have this problem in B.C.
Who do you think pays for all those parks, libraries, roads and other services? We do, and unfortunately they go up. While assessed value has something to do with your tax bill the mill rate is the determiner. I’m all for stopping unnecessary city spending and it should be monitored. I’m more concerned about when we’re going to pay for the white elephant the agri-hub and we will be sooner or later.
Reminds me of the city ABCP situation years ago. They buried it in the paperwork under a line in the financial statement. We found it out later and then the excuses and finger pointing began. Result…nothing.
The city of Hamilton resident’s sued their city hall.over it’s poor oversight and illegal investment practices, regarding asset backed commercial paper.
Not Lethbridge residents though. We buy the, you know what, every time.