A warning from Calgary’s Chamber of Commerce that local businesses are threatened by tax and fee hikes should prompt council to “trim the fat” from city operations, said Coun. Joe Magliocca.

“If I ran my corporation like I ran city hall I’d be bankrupt, to be honest with you,” said the rookie Ward 2 councillor Friday, responding to an unusually outspoken letter the chamber sent to mayor and council earlier this week.

In it, chamber president and CEO Adam Legge outlined his concern that the city has not considered the cumulative impacts planned increases to property taxes, sewage, garbage and franchise power fees will have on local businesses.

“No one is saying these things are wrong or bad, they’re all necessary as we grow,” Legge said in an interview. “But we can’t just keep adding a few dollars here, a few dollars there, without looking at the big picture.”

The chamber has asked the city to undertake an analysis of how the combined increases could impact the city’s overall competitiveness.

But the city needs to do more than that, said Magliocca, who voted against a motion this week that set targets for property taxes to increase by 4.7 per cent annually for the next four years, and water and sewage fees increase by 8.3 per cent per year.

Magliocca added he did not feel council considered the total impact the hikes would have on businesses, as well as residents, and that the city should look inward before turning to taxpayers to cover the rising cost of services in a rapidly growing Calgary.

“We don’t need four communications officers for the art department, we don’t need 100 middle managers. What I’d like to do is challenge general managers to find savings,” he said. “There’s a lot of fat they can trim.”

Magliocca added he did not advocate cutting essential services such as transit and street sweeping.

Ward 12 Coun. Shane Keating, one of 11 councillors to support the tax targets, said he was open to the chamber’s request to study how businesses could be affected by the hikes. But, he cautioned, he’ll need proof that businesses are really in trouble in a city with high disposable income and a low unemployment rate.

“The chamber always has a valid point, but you have to verify,” he said. “I’m willing to accept it, but I’m not willing to sit here and say they’re 100 per cent right.”

Keating agreed the city should look into how it can operate more efficiently to save costs and that it may need to consider taking steps to protect small businesses, such as taxing them at a lower rate than large corporations. According to the Chamber, businesses pay 3.5 times what residents pay in local taxes.

But Calgary’s prosperity doesn’t mean businesses are on easy street, said Richard Truscott, Alberta director for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. In addition to some of the highest labour, parking and real estate costs in Canada, the costs downloaded from the city amount to “death by 1,000 fees, charges, and taxes,” he said.

“The city needs to wake up to the fact that they’re doing serious damage to the competitive position of our small businesses.”

Truscott said the chamber’s letter echoes an issue his organization has been trumpeting for years and that a look at the effect of taxes on small business is way overdue. Meanwhile, looming payroll taxes at the provincial and federal level and a review of the Municipal Government Act that may give the city more power to generate revenue through fees and charges has businesses facing the potential of more crunches in the near future.

“We’re moving in the wrong direction,” he said. “Calgary is supposed to be a place that recognizes and rewards and appreciates entrepreneurs and the difficulties of running a small business, and it seems we’ve gotten away from that. We seem to be taking our small business community for granted.”

Mayor Naheed Nenshi was not available to comment Friday.

Jbarrett@postmedia.com

Twitter.com_jmbarrett