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“On service levels and programs, we don’t have an idea of what each program is and what it costs.”

The C.D. Howe report also states spending listed in Calgary’s 2017 budget was given as $6.75 billion but in the annual report, reported as only $3.82 billion — a 43.4 per cent difference.

“This gap is so large that, although an expert would hesitate to attribute it to under-spending relative to budget targets, a non-expert, working from financial reports that overall merited a grade of D-, might indeed draw that conclusion,” states the report.

Keating said that larger number likely includes capital spending that wasn’t also used up in that one year, but that it could be explained to the public in a more “user-friendly way.”

And while the report suggests cities are increasingly hoarding assets while insisting they can’t afford to build infrastructure, Keating wouldn’t apologize for what he calls fiscal prudence.

“Yes, we end up a surplus but it’s less than one per cent of the entire budget … every household budget should end up with a surplus,” he said.

At the end of 2016, the city’s rainy day fund was $557 million, up from $295 million in 2012.

Some of that money has recently been used to offset tax increases.

Last April, council approved a 2018 budget with a $57 hike in property taxes on a median-priced home of $480,000.

Coun. Jyoti Gondek agreed the city could probably improve its public budget reporting and that it would be willing to use best practices.

But she said city officials haven’t willfully kept taxpayers in the dark or confused them.

“Sometimes the public’s given the notion things are being withheld with intention, but more often than not it’s a case of not considering how it’ll appear,” said Gondek, adding that comes partly from operating a large organization.

“We’re ready to improve on meeting citizens’ expectation and I think we’ve proven that with our zero-based budgeting.”

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn