Ok taxpayers, get out your Christmas card list and strike a line through these four names: Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier, Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel, Calgary Alderman Bob Hawkesworth, and Taber Councillor Don Johnson. These four men are otherwise known as the members of the Minister's Council on Municipal Sustainability.

In their report to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the council has recommended a raft of new taxes for municipalities.

If approved by the Stelmach government, municipalities will be allowed to probe your pocketbook for an amusement tax, a tourism tax, a property transfer tax, a vehicle registration tax as well as expanded development levies on new homes or properties.

The amusement tax could come in the form of an extra fee on hockey tickets, zoo admissions, concerts or exhibitions. The tourism tax would likely tack on a few additional points to the 4 per cent provincial sales tax on hotel rooms. The property transfer tax would likely be a 1 to 2 per cent tax on the sale price of your house when you sell it. The vehicle registration tax will boost the cost to renew your car registration each year. The expanded development levy will increase the already large development fees passed on to new home buyers.

And don't be confused, they're not proposing to replace current forms of civic taxation with these new ones. Municipalities will continue to collect property taxes, business taxes, user fees, and municipal franchise fees on utilities.

All of these new taxes are completely unnecessary.

The provincial government has been steadily reducing its portion of the education property tax for a decade. Many municipalities moved in (some more raucously than others) to pick up that "tax room" (read: steal your provincial tax cut). When the GST was cut, many municipalities didn't change their user fees to reflect the reduction in cost (read: steal your federal tax cut). Development levies and building permits have steadily increased in many municipalities (111 per cent increase from 1994-2004 in Edmonton alone), driving up the cost of new homes and assessments. And on top of all this is a new $1.4 billion gift of provincial funding to municipalities.

In addition to squeezing more out of Alberta taxpayers, these new taxes fly in the face of many of the already stated goals of municipalities. If the power to levy a property transfer tax and expanded development levies are granted, it will only drive up the cost of new and existing homes. Incredibly, the Minister's Council also recommends in its report the need for shared responsibility to deal with affordable housing.

Here's an idea to help make housing more affordable: quit driving up housing prices with development levies and ill-conceived property transfer taxes!

In a further twist of hypocrisy, many Alberta cities, including Edmonton and Calgary, spend thousands upon thousands of tax dollars each year to promote and encourage tourism. Just as governments tax tobacco in order to drive up the price of cigarettes and drive down the number of people smoking, tourism and amusement taxes are going to drive up the price of visiting Alberta and drive down the number of tourists.

Why would you tax something you're trying to encourage more of

These recommendations are nothing more than a greedy tax-grab by civic politicians who believe your money is better off in their coffers than in your pockets. With any hope the new Stelmach government will blue-box this report before any irreversible damage is done.