Tax base on the grow
Published Tuesday December 2nd, 2008
Most towns, villages in the area see growth in value of assessed property
The combination of new construction and an increase in the assessed value of existing properties will see a substantial growth in the tax base of most local municipalities in 2009.
New Brunswick Local Government Minister Bernard LeBlanc released the numbers on Friday.
"Overall, the tax bases have increased by $2.3 billion, or 7.2 per cent above last year's figures," LeBlanc noted in the release.
"The increases are attributed to a combination of new construction and an increase in the value of existing properties."
Service New Brunswick (SNB) determines the assessed value of real property for all municipalities and rural communities.
The mandate of SNB Assessment Services is to provide assessments that represent the market value of the property.
Changes in assessed values of properties are based on recent real estate sales in each community, as well as the cost of new construction.
With the tax-base figures now in their hands, members of municipal councils throughout the region will finally be able to calculate their 2009 budgets.
In conversation with the Bugle-Observer on Saturday, Woodstock Coun. Peter Kennedy, the longtime chairperson of the town's finance committee, said the town has still not received confirmed figures from the province.
The later-than-usual release of the tax-base numbers means the town will not be able to finalize its 2009 budget until January, he explained.
Last year, Kennedy said, the town had tax-base numbers in hand by Nov. 19. He could not explain this year's delay, but said it's not the problem of the assessment office in Woodstock, as officials at the local office had the numbers in the province's hands on time.
The figures announced by the New Brunswick government in a Communications New Brunswick release on Friday show Woodstock's tax base jumping by 6.26 per cent from $358.8 million to just over $381.2 million. That translates into a total increase in assessed property value of just under $22.5 million.
Without seeing the actual figures, Kennedy said he could not be sure how much of that increase was a result of higher assessment of existing property and how much was related to new construction.
He added he is interested to see the assessed value of the former Carleton Memorial Hospital.
Now that the building is sitting empty, Kennedy said, the value should have dropped significantly.
The Woodstock finance committee chair said it was too early to determine how the 6.26 per cent increase in the tax base will reflect on the tax rate. Even if the rate remains the same, the higher base will mean more tax dollars being collected.
Kennedy acknowledged the numbers released Friday sit close to what Woodstock officials were anticipating.
"Our thought process was there would be an increase of around 5.5 per cent," Kennedy said.
On a percentage basis, the Woodstock tax base was the highest among the region's towns, and among the highest for all municipalities. Hartland and Florenceville-Bristol saw tax-base increases of 5.55 and 5.88 per cent respectively.
That means Hartland's total assessed property value will increase to $68.45 million, while the newly amalgamated community of Florenceville-Bristol will deliver a budget on an assessed tax base of $178.65 million.
The smallest increase among local towns was in Nackawic, where the tax base increased by only 1.56 per cent, from $115.37 million to $117.17 million.
Among the villages of Northern York and Carleton counties, Centreville saw, by far, the largest jump in tax base, which rose 10.48 per cent, from just under $31.6 million to close to $34.9 million.
Percentage wise Canterbury, Meductic and Millville experienced similar increases of 3.5, 3.4 and 3.27 per cent respectively.
Of the three villages, Meductic has the highest tax base with an assessed property value totalling almost $12.2 million.
Canterbury's 2009 tax base is almost $11.5 million, while Millville's tax base will increase to close to $8.5 million next year.
The smallest tax base increase among the region's municipalities was Bath, which saw its total assessed property value increase by only 0.75 per cent.
That modest increase will see the village's tax base grow by only $162,000 from a base of $21.6 million to $21.76 million.
While individual property values are not included in the release, Bath, like Woodstock, now has an empty hospital building to consider.
It is still not clear whether a decrease in value of the old Northern Carleton Hospital property reflected on the village's modest tax-base growth.
The numbers for Northern York and Carleton counties reflect a pattern throughout the province. Only a few New Brunswick municipalities saw a drop in tax base.
The economically hard-hit town of Dalhousie on the North Shore – which this year lost its two main employers, a pulp and paper mill and a chemical plant – saw its tax base plummet by 9.14 per cent, a drop of $29.8 million in assessed property value.
In the Upper Valley, the village of Plaster Rock was one of the few municipalities to see its tax base shrink from $56.5 million to $55.7 million, a loss of 1.4 per cent.
If most municipalities at least maintain current tax rates, the higher assessed value of property province wide will see more money collected in taxes, explained Minister LeBlanc.
"Based on current municipal property tax rates, the increase in tax bases could generate $24 million for cities, $9 million for towns, $2 million for villages, and $78,000 for rural communities, for a total of $35 million in new tax revenue," the minister stated.
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