The exterior of Saint John City Hall is pictured in this file photo. (Staff photo)
It’s official — tax rates in Saint John will be going down by 7.5 cents in the New Year.
Council gave the final stamp of approval to the 2022 operating budget earlier this week.
The tax rate will drop to $1.71 per $100 of assessed property value, the lowest tax rate since 1998.
It will also put the city three years ahead of the long-term financial plan tax rate target.
Massive increases to the city’s property tax base are the main reason for the lower tax rate.
But city staff have described it as an “outlier” year as those increases are mainly due to market adjustments rather than new construction.
Overall spending in the 2022 budget is up 4.7 per cent year-over-year to $164.7 million.
Much of the revenue will come from property taxes. While growth was up by 6.7 per cent, revenue from property taxes will only increase by 2.7 per cent to $129.4 million due to the tax rate reduction.
The unconditional grant from the province dropped by 2.1 per cent to $17.8 million, while own-source revenue is up by 6.4 per cent to nearly $14 million.
The city will also transfer nearly $2.4 million from its operating reserves, which includes $1.9 million from COVID-relief funding. That will be used to offset a carryover deficit of $991,000 from 2020 and estimated parking losses of $876,000 in 2022 due to the economy not being fully recovered.
Public safety makes up about one-third of next year’s budget at $56.2 million, an increase of 2.3 per cent.
The public works and transportation budget increased by 2.5 per cent to $39.45 million, accounting for nearly one-quarter of the budget.
Growth and community services will increase by five per cent to nearly $16.3 million, primarily due to investments in building incentive reserves and affordable housing projects.
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