City of Calgary unveils changes to budget

Changes to next year's budget forCalgary are now being unveiled at City Hall.

The draft budget calls for a property tax of 5.7 per cent for next year.

It includes increases in spending for the city's 911 call centre and for its new emergency operations centre, whichcosts almost $3 million a year.

Administrators havefound a way to pay for the budget over-run on the soon-to-be-opened West LRT. They want to take the money from a proposed new interchange at 16th Avenue and Bowfort Road northwest, butthat could delay the interchange indefinitely.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi says he will push to limit next year's tax increase to the proposed 5.7 per cent or less, as that is above the rate of the city's growth plus inflation.

"We're0.2 per cent off of that number right now5.5 versus 5.7 per centso I will certainly keep looking with my sharpened pencil for more efficiencies, but I want to be realistic about the fact that we worked hard on that last year and came up with a large number of efficiencies for the public," Nenshi explained.

City council will finalize next year's budget later this month.