Lecture 3 PDF - Municipal Public Policy

Lecture 3 Tuesday, January 28, 2025 4:58 PM Week 3- Municipal Public Policy ( Last Class of Unit 1) Unit test 1 next week Monday, 29 MC ( use review and reflection slides, assigned re What Cities Do - Basic Framework ( memorize the 4 for exam) 1. Protecting and serving local property ( P...

Lecture 3 Tuesday, January 28, 2025 4:58 PM Week 3- Municipal Public Policy ( Last Class of Unit 1) Unit test 1 next week Monday, 29 MC ( use review and reflection slides, assigned re What Cities Do - Basic Framework ( memorize the 4 for exam) 1. Protecting and serving local property ( Policing: 137 big cities), Canadian municipalities operate their own police forces Ontario provincial police, in Alberta it contracted to RCMP rural))). When a muni Policing: operated by municipality, day to day governance by police commission. property taxes) Fire Protection: Urban municipalities operate municipal fire departments ( in all b emergency you get paid on duty)). ( Community services/ Fire). Accounts for arou Water: Originally a department of the municipality. Today (1950s-1960s), often s municipalities have sold off their water systems or contract them to operators, they level governance. ( supported by water rates and service charges ( not supported they do gas and electricity. Garbage: waste removal (garbage, recycling, compost) administered by municipa contract to private companies to pick up the garbage. Supported by waste removal Sewage: typically a department of the municipality ( critical responsibility) integra ( Enmax bill). Supported by utility fees. 2. Providing tailored services to local residents Roads and bridges. Municipalities generally responsible for roads and highways, with services) including snow removal 4% of property tax revenues. eadings for the test) s ( otherwise contracted to provincial police or RCMP) In Ontario sub contract to icipality does not have police force it contracts work out. About 11% of total municipal expenditure ( typically #1 of proportion of big cities) in smaller places ( volunteer, part time paid small stipend, if called to und 6.5% of municipal expenditure) subcontracted to private companies or municipally-owned corporations. Many y might own the private companies, or pay them to operate). Can have multi- by property Tax), billed by Enmax. Enmax just does billing for water since ality directly or subcontracted to private companies), now a day, they may l fees ( Enmax bill) run by city but they run the billing. ated often with infrastructure for water. Supported by waste removal fees some funding/ support from provinces. 99% responsible to city. Operational  2. Providing tailored services to local residents Roads and bridges. Municipalities generally responsible for roads and highways, with services) including snow removal 4% of property tax revenues. Public transit: 218 municipalities in Canada own public transit assets ( larger municipa TTC, Arms length agency) , and metropolitan agencies (e.g. TransLink like in Vancouv even though region is large, thus regional service). Direct municipal responsibility, paid Parks and Recreation: Local parks and recreation facilities ( arenas, pools, community special purpose bodies), parks commission for instance, in Vancouver elected park boar Public libraries ( special purpose bodies as well). Direct municipal responsibility, suppo community associations. Public libraries Overseen by Library board. 1.5% of property tax 3. Attracting individuals and businesses Economic development: designing programs and regulatory frameworks to attract busi retention/expansion, cluster strategies. Generally support rather than regulate economic commerce, etc. In some provinces, property tax incentives (NB, QC, ON, SK, AB, BC). corporation funded by City of Calgary, private sector, provincial/federal support. Board Business Improvement Areas: local businesses allowed to impose mandatory additio initiatives. Originated in Toronto in 1970. Tourism: promoting tourism and short-term visits to municipality. Often overseen by Calgary tourism, attract and support events and conventions. Financial support from Cit 4. Regulating local land development and use Regulating Local Land Development and Use Municipalities have broad responsibilities in the areas of land development, land use, a Private market and rental housing: zoning land for specific land uses (residential, comm Community or social housing: units developed with government funding or subsidies, Calgary Housing Company - manages 10,000 affordable housing units across Calgary. A profit organization owned by the City of Calgary designed to create and increase the sup  some funding/ support from provinces. 99% responsible to city. Operational alities own 80%). Operated by municipalities, local special purpose bodies (e.g. ver and cover in surrey etc.. Because the municipalities in Vancouver are smaller d through user fees and property tax ( 7.7% of property tax revenues) y centres, arts centres, etc.) Typically operated by municipality ( historically by rd. orted by user fees and 2-3% of property tax. Some facilities also operated by inesses and create employment opportunities; support entrepreneurs, development — often in partnership with local universities, chambers of. Economic development: Calgary Economic Development, a non-profit d of Directors includes member of Calgary City Council. onal tax on property owners in designated area to pay for economic development special purpose bodies. Tourism: independent organization designed to promote ty of Calgary, Travel Alberta, Calgary hotel association, etc. and housing. mercial ( retail businesses) , industrial)) operated by public, non-profit, cooperative organizations. Social housing in An organization owned by the City of Calgary. Attainable Homes Calgary - non- pply of non-market affordable housing. ( Subsidized housing)  Private market and rental housing: zoning land for specific land uses (residential, comm Community or social housing: units developed with government funding or subsidies, Calgary Housing Company - manages 10,000 affordable housing units across Calgary. A profit organization owned by the City of Calgary designed to create and increase the sup Homelessness: individuals living on the streets, in emergency shelters, or in temporary/precarious locations. Homelessness in Calgary - complex multilevel go Foundation (extreme weather response program), Alpha House, Calgary Immigrant Wo much more by private sector) Planning and Development Services: a large department of City of Calgary which inc City and Regional Planning, Community Planning ( community and area plans, group o Business - Land use governed by Calgary Plan and Land Use Bylaw - Municipal Development Plan defines how Calgary will grow over the next 60 yea Transportation Plan. Land Use Bylaw defines the land use designations and where these designations exist ac Graph of ISSUE IMPORTANCE: Whiskers ( tell us confidence intervals), dot is the mean. The point of the plot is to show contentious like indigenous relations and immigrant settlement, in smaller cities, homele Next Slide: the black line is average importance score ( 4 is extremely important), the co cities. Upwards sloping is more important, downward sloping, as city gets bigger, impor If the line is red is it statistically significant, grey is not. Bread and butter, no matter where you are they remain important. In this case, in 2018, More attention to climate policy compared to 5 years ago, to more smaller communities contentious, back in 2019 less conservative, thus now starting to flatten out. In smaller c Issue Importance: Then and Now The “bread and butter” issues are largely the same: planning, transportation, water su recreation, public health, solid waste, and policing (next five) But housing has shot to the t  mercial ( retail businesses) , industrial)) operated by public, non-profit, cooperative organizations. Social housing in An organization owned by the City of Calgary. Attainable Homes Calgary - non- pply of non-market affordable housing. ( Subsidized housing) overnance. City of Calgary provides ~ $9 million in support to Calgary Homeless omen’s Association, and many others. ( complicated multi level governance, led cludes Downtown Strategy, Climate and Environment, of communities drawing what the community will look like in the future), and ars. Consists of Municipal Development Plan, Community Guidebooks, and cross the City, ( commercial, industrial, residential). ( MC-1, R1) etc.. w overall ranking of importance. Bottom are areas that are politically essness and public transit are less important. oloured lines are relationship between importance score and area such as big rtance score they give to area is going down the yellow shaded ones remain important ( overall order is important) s, starting to flatten the line out, Climate policy has become more politically communities it has become more important upply, economic development (big four); emergency planning, parks and top of the list as an emerging core issue( between 2018 and 2025). The  Issue Importance: Then and Now The “bread and butter” issues are largely the same: planning, transportation, water su recreation, public health, solid waste, and policing (next five) But housing has shot to the t relationship between population and issue importance remains consistent for some issues ( some relationships look different Two are actually negative: solid waste and emergency planning ( was not case in 2019 w Course set of bread and butter important everywhere, then additional ones important in big politics in Canada. An election in Calgary compared to Brooks, different kinds of issues. Really IMPORTANT What cities do and what matters to people and communities, thus affects campaign strategi Municipal Finance: The Property Tax They start with the money they need ( need 1 billion in property taxes), then go out and amount needed, and total value of property. Income tax ( suppose economic boom, we pay more income tax, the province Governme changing anything, with municipal property taxes, does NOT apply). Only way for city Provincial government can in good times cut taxes or anything without raising taxes, cit The Property Tax: An Overview ( Empirical) multi level model they use to predict ever Regulated by Provincial Law)) Property tax = value of property * property tax rate How the property tax is calculated: First, a municipality determines its revenue requirement This revenue requirement is divided by the assessed tax base The result: the property tax rate In Alberta (and other provinces) the property tax is a combination of municipal and provinc Oddities of the Property Tax Oddity #1: Municipal governments don’t directly benefit from boom times upply, economic development (big four); emergency planning, parks and top of the list as an emerging core issue( between 2018 and 2025). The (transit, homelessness, immigrant settlement, housing, poverty reduction) but where no issue of lower importance in big cities) g cities rather than other areas, important because It clarifies municipal T to where we pivot into questions of politics, voting and representation. ies and elections. d say what is the total value of all properties in Calgary. Take total ent of Canada gets more money from income taxes without is to increase the ( need of money 1Billion increase to 2). ties in good time needs a vote in council to spend more money ry single value in Calgary ( guess on properties nearby sold) cial property tax.  The result: the property tax rate In Alberta (and other provinces) the property tax is a combination of municipal and provinc Oddities of the Property Tax Oddity #1: Municipal governments don’t directly benefit from boom times Municipality needs $1 billion and has property valued at $100 billion. Your house is worth An economic boom doubles the value of all properties. Now the property tax rate is 0.005 a The point: the only way a municipality gets more money from property taxes is by increasi Oddities of the Property Tax Oddity #2: Property owners are unaffected by equal property value increases or decreases, b A house in one neighborhood is worth $500,000. A similar house in another neighborhood $5,000 + $1,000 = $6,000 total. A factory is built in the first neighborhood, reducing the value of the first house to $400,000 happen? 6000/500000 = 0.012 tax rate House #1 = 400,000 * 0.012 = $4,800 House #2 = 100,000 * 0.012 = $1,200 (20% increase!) Example: non-residential property values in Calgary!Oddities of the Property Tax ( comm commercial areas, bow building goes down in valley, suddenly your strip mall in Dalhou Oddity #3: The meaning of a property tax “freeze” depends a lot on what is happening to pr Example: property tax rate is 0.01 and property is worth 100 billion. In Y1, the municipality Property values increase by 5%. With the same property tax rate, the municipality now brin money the municipality must decrease the tax rate. Property values decrease by 5%. With the same property tax rate, the municipality now brin municipality must increase the tax rate. The point: a property tax “freeze” or “cut” doesn’t necessarily mean property owners are ac City Limits: A Theory of Urban Politics City Limits Theory: Foundational Claims ( Paul Peterson) Policy makes politics. Because of the things that municipalities are allowed to do and bec politics inevitably has a distinctive character. ( PMP, a lot of how politics works at any level The core argument: Municipalities rely primarily on property tax for revenue ( money they get depends on val People and capital flow easily across cities with minimal restrictions. ( if I do not like life in As a consequence, cities must compete with other cities for residents and businesses, privil Investment ( cities have to worry about losing people, money they get come from prope The result: an emphasis on developmental ( increase wealth of local municipality like polic cial property tax. $100,000. Property tax rate = 0.01. You pay $1,000. and your house worth $200,000. You pay $1,000. ing the amount they decide to spend. but uneven changes to property values cause havoc. is worth $100,000. Property tax rate = 0.01. Municipality makes 0. To make the same amount of revenue ($6,000), what must now mercial properties value in downtown stagnant, in other usie now you are paying 20, 30% more property taxes). roperty values. y has $1 billion in revenue. ngs in $1.05 billion in revenue. To bring in the same amount of ngs in $950 million. To bring in the same amount of money the ctually paying less to the municipality in taxes! cause of the ways municipalities are allowed to raise money, municipal has to do with the policy issues being addressed in that setting). lue of place they are). n Calgary, I can go to Okotoks) leging policies that attract labour and erty tax, because people can leave, they have to maintain attractive) cy incentive for business to move into a community) and allocational  The core argument: Municipalities rely primarily on property tax for revenue ( money they get depends on val People and capital flow easily across cities with minimal restrictions. ( if I do not like life in As a consequence, cities must compete with other cities for residents and businesses, privil Investment ( cities have to worry about losing people, money they get come from prope The result: an emphasis on developmental ( increase wealth of local municipality like polic policy( where things go, where to put arenas, schools etc..) City Limits Theory: An Example Example: redistributive policy ( they do not focus on) Left-wing government elected to municipal council and introduces extremely generous ben utilities, etc. Consequence: municipality attracts increased numbers of low-income residents welfare provisions: ever-increasing property tax rates. Those who can move away from the city (thereby avoiding the onerous property taxes) cho Result: downward fiscal spiral! 2 principles: Competition with other places for residents and businesses and property taxes) City Limits Theory “The Los Angeles dope peddler—in his role as peddler—hardly benefits from a successful Limits. “On the other hand, as a resident of the city, he benefits from a policy that enhances t (Peterson 1981) ( interest for everybody in that place for it to be more wealthy and attractive “Whatever desire local residents may have for social programs or redistributive policy, mun with constant competition from other cities for businesses and residents, pressures municipal investment…A local community’s residents may be profoundly divided — left versus right, argues that they all share one thing in common: an interest in the economic growth, prestige, city.” (Borwein and Lucas 2021) City Limits Theory ( ON EXAM WELL, READ PETERSON WELL) City politics is limited politics — not because the people are limited, or everyone in the city appropriate scale for redistribution Municipal politics’ focus on “developmental” policy — attracting and retaining residents an NOT A result of the absence of ideological diversity in the city NOT A conspiracy of the business elites to suppress dissent NOT A function of a hegemonic neoliberal ideological consensus Municipal politics’ focus on “developmental” policy is instead a rational response to the c different! Or at least…that’s what CL theory argues. We’ll see! - Paul tries to make two arguments 1. City politics fundamentally different, and different - City politics according to Peterson is limited. Not a scale appropriate for redistributive) - In what ways is it persuasive or not, much of what Peterson argues is wrong, because it that city politics do not look like how Peterson predicts). Need to see force of argumen advocating from distributive policies? Great deal in city politics in which City theory d  lue of place they are). n Calgary, I can go to Okotoks) leging policies that attract labour and erty tax, because people can leave, they have to maintain attractive) cy incentive for business to move into a community) and allocational nefits for low-income residents: guaranteed basic income, free transit, free who wish to benefit from generous social provisions. To pay for social oose to do so drive to remove hard drugs from the city,” wrote Paul Peterson in City the attractiveness of the city as a locale in which to live and work.” e) nicipal governments’ dependence on property tax revenue, combined lities to prioritize developmental policies that attract skilled workers and rich versus poor, even drug dealer versus police officer — but Peterson , and power of their y agrees about politics, but because municipal politics is not the nd businesses is not: constraints in which municipal governments operate. Municipal politics is t due to context in which cities have to act. ). t makes sense, we have to think carefully in how it is wrong, why is it nt to understand the need and why do we see left wing politicians does not capture.  - City politics according to Peterson is limited. Not a scale appropriate for redistributive) - In what ways is it persuasive or not, much of what Peterson argues is wrong, because it that city politics do not look like how Peterson predicts). Need to see force of argumen advocating from distributive policies? Great deal in city politics in which City theory d Questions for Reflection and Review Describe the four areas of municipal policy: protecting and servicing local property, provid businesses, regulating local land development and use. Provide examples of policy domains Calgary What are the “bread and butter” issues in municipal policy in Canada? What do Lucas and issues changed, according to 2025 data? What do Lucas and Smith mean by “growers” and “surgers”? What are the issues that are most strongly related to populations size, according to Lucas an 2025? Describe how the property tax is calculated Describe the three “oddities” of the property tax What are the three sources of variation in municipal intergovernmental relations, according Describe the core ideas of “city limits” theory. According to city limits theory, why would municipal politics than in provincial or federal politics? What is the meaning of Peterson’s argument about the “Los Angeles Dope Peddler”? Up to here for Unit Test #1 DO READINGS, and what is relativ  ). t makes sense, we have to think carefully in how it is wrong, why is it nt to understand the need and why do we see left wing politicians does not capture. ding tailored services to local residents, attracting individuals and within each area. Describe how each area is governed in the City of Smith mean by “bread and butter” issues? Have the “bread and butter” nd Smith? What are the issues most strongly related to population size in g to Lucas and Smith? we expect to see less “political” or “ideological” disagreement in ve and not today.