Quispamsis residents will likely see their property tax rate climb next year.
The town’s $25.8-million operating budget for 2020 — which will be approved later this month — includes a tax rate increase of 2.73 cents.
Mayor Gary Clark says they started the meeting with much higher numbers and a four-cent increase to tax rates, but council managed to lower that amount.
Clark says the biggest driver of increased costs are external sources like police, fire and libraries.
“Some of the external sources are out of our control, but we certainly looked at the internal ones and were able to bring that number down,” he said during an interview.
Clark says they’re trying to find a balance between the services they provide and keeping a low tax rate.
“You know, we focused over the last few years on water and roads. Believe you me, I would love to see us do even more roads, but we have to have that balance to keep the tax rate at a reasonable level,” he said.
He says it’s also about being proactive.
“Nobody wants to see the tax rate go up, our residents don’t like it and our council doesn’t like it. We don’t want to end up in a situation like Saint John so an increase in our tax rate is prudent,” he said
Clark says another financial concern is a significant decrease in unconditional grants from the province.
“We’ve been cut over the past few years almost $900,000 in unconditional grants,” he said. “We get now $110,000 a year where we’ve got almost $1 million a few years ago, and we look at our neighbouring communities such as Riverview, who end up with over $2 million in unconditional grants, so we’re trying to find the reasoning behind that.”
Clark says he feels the town is being “punished” by keeping tax rates low.
A number of recreation facilities will see fee increases in 2020 as well, in an effort to help generate revenue and keep tax rates low.
Council will approve the 2020 budget at a December 17th meeting.
