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Money problems

Thousands of St. Albertans might have a rough Christmas season ahead, but they can now rest easy knowing the salaries of their city council members are safe.

Thousands of St. Albertans might have a rough Christmas season ahead, but they can now rest easy knowing the salaries of their city council members are safe.

Taxpayers are now on the hook for an extra $51,900 because council members decided Monday they wanted to keep their take-home pay the same after learning earlier this year the federal government plans to eliminate a one-third tax exemption for their salaries.

Council members made a great show of agonizing over the decision. Their discussion Monday was fraught with emotional hand-wringing, with many councillors talking about how awkward and uncomfortable it was to discuss their own salaries. Mayor Cathy Heron took it a step further, describing the decision as “squeamish.”

“My heart’s racing right now, talking about this, because it’s so uncomfortable,” she said Monday.

That discomfort didn’t stop councillors from voting 5-2, with Coun. Ken MacKay and Coun. Ray Watkins opposed, in favour of augmenting their salaries.

If only city councillors displayed that same level of discomfort when it came to raising city taxes, introducing an electricity franchise fee or chopping funding to some of the city’s non-profits.

Heron pointed out the 33.3-per-cent tax hit is no walk in the park, and it isn’t the kind of tax change most St. Albertans have had to contend with.

But most St. Albertans have never enjoyed receiving anywhere close to 33.3 per cent of their salary tax-free in the first place.

And with an incoming property tax increase this year, residents don’t have the option of augmenting their salaries to compensate.

Coun. Jacquie Hansen argued Monday that councillors signed on for a certain salary. It’s only fair for them to receive that money no matter what, right? And as many other council members pointed out, several other municipalities have gone ahead with salary increases as well – so we should follow suit.

The tax-free exemption wasn’t fair in the first place, but only two councillors seemed to recognize that. What is fair, however, is that politicians receive the same tax treatment as the rest of us. It could be argued that the playing field is now level, if only we would forget about their self-imposed salary top-up to cushion the blow.

The optics of raising one’s publicly funded salary at a time when the economic future for Alberta looks bleak and many people are struggling to make ends meet are bad. Doing that on the eve of budget discussions that ultimately increased the municipal tax rate for residents by 0.4 per cent looks even worse.

It’s unfortunate that city councillors’ discussion around this item was so limited. There was no talk of the budgetary pressures facing the city, nor of the economic gutter Alberta’s oil industry has slipped into. Councillors seem happy to suggest belt-tightening when it comes to some of the city’s non-profits, or to projects they don’t personally support, but when it comes to their own pocketbooks, they showed there is no such thing as altruism.

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