Special city council meeting called over leak of confidential Calgary budget docs
Preliminary budget documents obtained by Global News show a large property tax increase would be required to pay for the funding requests in front of Calgary city council.
A special city council meeting has been convened in Calgary due to the leak of confidential and preliminary budget documents. The documents revealed a substantial property tax increase would be necessary to accommodate all spending requests in the upcoming four-year budget. During a closed-door session on July 28, city council instructed administration to reduce the requests and present an updated budget scenario later in the month, with a projected 15% property tax increase in 2027.
Mayor Jeromy Farkas clarified that the figures are merely a "wishlist" and that no decisions have been made about the proposed tax hike. Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston admitted to leaking the information, leading to a debate between him and the mayor. Following the incident, Farkas called for a special meeting of council to receive legal advice regarding the unauthorized disclosure of 2027-2030 budget cycle information.
The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday morning, following a busy Executive Committee meeting where councillors will need to endorse an option for the downtown leg of the Green Line LRT project.
Written by urgent.news from Global News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
