It’s a million-dollar question that has a pretty obvious answer.
The Town of Okotoks is considering an increase to the natural gas franchise fee, a move that would add about $82 to the average natural gas customer's annual bill starting next year. It’s just a proposal at this point, part of Okotoks council’s budget discussions that will take place this fall, but given it stands to raise in the neighbourhood of $1 million, it’s a bone civic politicians might not want to let go.
The fact the proposal is even on the table suggests there’s some level of support for the idea at Town Hall, although once you get beyond those walls, that approval rating drops sharply. That’s because ratepayers are feeling the pinch every time they turn around, so the prospect of having to pay more every month through an increased franchise fee isn’t sitting well. Nor should it.
There’s no doubt that council members and bureaucrats are facing cost pressures as they settle into budget deliberations, but so too are those who would be on the receiving end of any approved increases. The cost of food, housing, utilities and more has risen sharply, so council members should think long and hard before adding to that burden given many household budgets are already stretched beyond their limits.
The Town is positioning the issue as a choice between hiking franchise fees or property taxes, maintaining that an increase in the former can limit escalation of the latter. That makes sense from a numbers perspective, but it fails to address the bigger picture, the fact that all that money, regardless of the revenue stream, is coming out of the same pockets.
The real choice during budget deliberations should be where, and on what, to spend tax dollars, not figuring out ways to extract more of it.
Taxpayers were already hit with a 4.7 per cent increase this year. They can’t take a lot more.
