‘Just unfair’ is how the mayor of Saint John characterizes the Gallant government’s unilateral decision to freeze property taxes in 2018.
The Liberals announced last week that the freeze would be enacted because the property tax system review by auditor-general Kim MacPherson is expected too late to make changes for the upcoming year.
“To download the mistakes of Service New Brunswick onto the city is…it’s unacceptable. We’re trying to scramble, there was no discussion with the city on this decision and we’re trying to figure out exactly what it means,” mayor Don Darling told CHSJ News.
Though it’s unclear at this point exactly what the freeze will mean for the city, the mayor anticipates it will deal a financial blow for cash-strapped Saint John.
“Going in, prior to a freeze on tax asessments, we were projecting somewhere in the range of a $3 to $4-million problem for 2018. This isn’t going to make that problem less significant, it’s going to make it more significant,” says Darling.
“[The freeze] combined with the impacts to unconditional grants, we think we could have a $4 to $5-million problem on our hands.”
Darling says they’ll likely ask the province to boost their grant to offset any negative impact to the city caused by the property tax freeze. Saint John’s unconditional grant for this year is $20.2-million.
A meeting of the mayors of Saint John, Fredericton and Moncton will be held this week and Darling says the freeze will be discussed.
There will be exceptions made for the 2018 property tax freeze, including new construction, real estate transactions, major improvements with a building permit and when a property tax assessment goes down because of market forces.
