When the headlines of a 20 per cent tax increase burst onto the scene almost two weeks ago, I was as shocked as anyone, but probably for very different reasons. I thought it would be more.

What Coun. Landon Johnston leaked was not an actual budget — Mayor Jeromy Farkas was quick to call it just a cumulative look at the total impact of all budget requests from city administration and city council. He’s right that it’s far from what the final budget will be after prioritization. But it does tell a very important story about the cost of building a city responsive to the demands of its citizens.

And public demands of the city are unrelenting.

It’s clear to anyone paying attention that the pressures facing Calgary cannot be managed via an austerity budget or mass layoffs. You cannot cut your way to the level of services Calgarians ask of their city council, especially at the cost of the thousands of working people that make Calgary run.

Look to the Inglewood Pool as an example – a facility that is well loved but was underused. The cost to keep the building going was more than just the cost of repairs; the building operated at a deficit. It was leaking money. But when word came down that it was time to move on from the pool, people protested to save the pool.

“Do more repairs. Run it till it breaks. Find the money.”

A pressure campaign that saw hundreds of thousands of dollars spent to prolong the life of a facility that has run its course. Imagine the exasperation our city administrators feel knowing that even when they tried to make the hard decision to prioritize fiscal prudence and asset management, the public demanded they “find the money.”

That desire expands across all Calgary services

Now extrapolate that attitude of broad public demands for everything from expanded transit, roads free of any wear and tear, parks redesigned and rebuilt, new trees planted, infrastructure improvements, public safety, replacing our aging water pipes, the speed of our permit approvals, the updates to our taxation system, preservation of heritage homes, and building more downtown vibrancy.

What people want from the City is an unending list.

But quite often, when a hard decision must be made that will inevitably inconvenience the public, the cry is often the same: Find the money.

So, when Landon Johnston leaked the preliminary budget documents that described the total cost of all of the budget requests that came in, I wasn’t shocked it was 20 per cent — I was shocked it wasn’t more.

What this leak represents for the public is something that even Coun. Johnston doesn’t want to admit. Johnston said he wanted Calgarians to see where their tax dollars would be spent — but what it actually did was confirm the true cost of keeping the City of Calgary going. What was intended to shock and disgust with the release simply frustrated people already keenly aware that the cost of the status quo is going up.

There is no magic in budgeting. To do what is asked of the City of Calgary, the bill has to be paid. While other orders of government have multiple revenue streams, from resource royalties to the ability to carry big deficits year over year, municipalities don’t. If a service is to continue, it must have a cash flow attached to it.

However, there is a cognitive dissonance where most people desire a city of excellence but are never truly told the cost of public demands. Politicians, out of electoral fear, have created destructive political narratives that we can somehow cut away so much bureaucratic fat, spend less, and that in the savings we’ll be able to satisfy the public will and somehow do more.

It is a wishful thinking approach to government that has yet to bear fruit anywhere, at any time.

Dreaming the impossible city budget dream

The thing is, elected leaders who spread the gospel of austerity as prosperity are fully aware that it is impossible to realize. Instead, austerity as prosperity turns into a slow deterioration of our communities all around us.

Then, one day, that deterioration becomes too great – a water main breaks, a housing crisis ensues, a pool must shut down, a service cancelled – and then the public asks why preventative maintenance wasn’t funded, why proactive community investment wasn’t prioritized… “How could you let this happen?”

Simple. People demanded austerity. The cost of austerity is deterioration.

We fondly remember the moments when a tax break was given, or cash rebates were issued. But the decisions that allowed those breaks to occur or the rebates to be issued were often the first cut of 1,000 cuts. Painless in the moment, but the pain grows exponentially with every passing cut.

Then, something big breaks down.

I know Mayor Farkas has claimed that we need to “cut the bullshit.” But the public may need to take a little more responsibility and come to terms with the fact that if we want to get everything that we ask for from our elected officials, we should be more comfortable paying for it.

And if the bill is too high, we should be more accepting of the trade-offs that come with compromise.