Not much wiggle room as Edmonton council has final debate on 8.7% tax increase – Edmonton [Video]

City councillors are discussing Tuesday and Wednesday amendments to the operating budget that would translate to a 8.7 per cent property tax increase for Edmonton homeowners.

While debate is scheduled for two full days, most councillors admit not much can be done at this point to change that rate.

“We’re not solving this today,” said Coun. Tim Cartmell.

He said there’s not much hope for reducing the 8.7 per cent increase this year. There might be a few projects in the capital plan that could be stretched over a longer time, Cartmell suggested, but nothing that can be fully explored in one or two days.

“I don’t like this budget. I don’t support this budget. But voting against this budget, voting ‘no,’ means we go back to the 6.6 (per cent) from November,” Cartmell said. “And none of these pressures go away. It means we create another big deficit… and that big deficit gets paid in subsequent years.

“The discussion today, we’re going to go through a …