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Calgarians might be looking at a “new normal” on their property tax bills, as council looks to fill a tax revenue hole left by downtown office vacancies and thus shift the burden to homeowners through rate hikes.

Council is set Monday to debate how to make up a $250-million funding gap from declining property tax revenue in the core and to finalize plans for 2019 property tax rates.

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But years of low downtown property values and a struggling economy mean keeping city coffers full will likely mean hiking residential property taxes, which could result in increases of as much as $500 to the average tax bill by 2022.

Coun. Jyoti Gondek said the potentially unpopular decision of raising rates on homeowners could fix a taxation “imbalance” between Calgary’s “14,000 (properties) on the non-residential side” and “half-a-million properties on the residential side.”

“I’m hoping we move towards a 50-50 split and rip the Band-Aid off, because we have spent so many years doing so many patchwork solutions,” Gondek said.