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Clark said in an interview that he called the news conference in response to answers mayoral candidates Kelley Moore and Don Atchison gave to an NSBA questionnaire, and that he had no intention of “throwing the (group) under the bus.”

Asked about his view on the tax ratio, Clark stood by his position that reducing it will erode the city’s ability to raise the revenue needed to maintain and improve neighbourhoods, and that larger forces govern economic growth in the city.

“I absolutely know we need to continue to grow opportunity here,” Clark said. “I just don’t want to undermine our ability to do that by loading more tax burden onto residents and making it more difficult to provide the services people need and value.”

The city’s tax ratio defines how the property tax burden is shared between commercial and residential property owners. It has been fixed at 1.75 since 2011, meaning businesses pay $1.75 in property taxes for every $1 paid by homeowners.

In 2013, council deferred until 2017 — the next reassessment year — a recommendation by the administration that it be lowered again, to 1.43, by 2020. The NSBA and other business groups are now asking for the reduction to take place over 16 years.

The NSBA believes that reducing the ratio does not constitute a “shift” but a means of creating opportunity for business investment, thereby increasing both the residential and commercial tax bases, Moen said.

In 2001, council voted to reduce the tax ratio to 1.75 from 2.41 over a 10-year period. Over the same period, multi-residential property tax rates were also lowered to equal residential property tax rates.