Tantramar Treasurer Michael Beal presented council with several tax rate options
Tantramar Town Council has decided to lower property tax rates next year in Sackville, Dorchester and the three former LSDs.
In an 8 to 1 vote on Tuesday, council chose to implement the provincial “stabilizer rate” that is designed to cushion the effects of rising property tax assessments while allowing municipalities a 4.7% increase in revenue to offset the effects of inflation.
The province announced last month, for example, that the stablizer rate in the former town of Sackville and the former village of Dorchester would be $1.4693 per $100 of assessment down from $1.5350, a reduction of 4.28%
It means that the owners of a home assessed at $300,000 in Sackville and Dorchester who paid $4,605 last year will pay $4,407.9 in 2027, a saving of $197.10.
Rates will also fall by lower percentages in the former LSDs where residents pay municipal rates to Tantramar for shared services that include police and fire protection, recreation costs including the Tantramar Civic Centre as well as the costs of administration for the municipality.
Property owners in the former LSDs also pay $0.4115 to the province for road maintenance and snow clearing.
That means, for example, that residents in the former Sackville LSD will pay $0.6341 to the municipality as well as the $0.4115 levy to the province for a total rate per $100 of assessment of $1.0456 in 2027.
Thus, the owners of a home assessed at $300,000 in the former Sackville LSD will pay a total property tax bill of $3,136.80 next year down from $3,222 for a saving of $85.20 or 2.64%.
Tantramar Treasurer Michael Beal explained that the lower rates will mean a loss of revenue to the town of $140,655, money that will be made up by reducing transfers to the capital reserve fund and from money set aside for council initiatives.
Map showing Tantramar divided into subunits for tax purposes with the former town of Sackville and village of Dorchester as well as the three former LSDs
According to Treasurer Beal, the former Sackville and Dorchester LSDs are still not paying their full share of police and fire services as well as administrative and recreation costs while the former Point de Bute LSD, which paid higher taxes to begin with, has reached its full share.
Beal explained that when the province forced Sackville, Dorchester and the surrounding areas to amalgamate in 2023, it decided that the LSDs should pay about 30 cents per $100 of assessment more in taxes for shared services, but decreed that the newly amalgamated town would have to phase-in that increase over several years.
He said that the province ruled that the maximum increase in any one year for the former LSDs would be five cents per $100 of assessment.
At previous meetings, council narrowed its options to three. Option 1 would have raised rates in the former Sackville and Dorchester LSDs by five cents to continue the process of bringing them up to the level the province said they should pay for shared services.
On Tuesday, council voted for Option 2 to implement the province’s stabilizer rates reducing the property rates for everyone with Councillor Weldon favouring Option 3 that would have reduced tax rates for Sackville, Dorchester and Point de Bute while freezing them in the former Sackville and Dorchester LSDs.
Weldon explained later that she thought it was fair to freeze rates in the former Sackville and Dorchester LSDs and that it would mean much less lost revenue for the town.
Tantramar’s total operating budget next year will be $19,469,150.
Total policing costs will amount to $3,324,998 while the town plans to spend a total of $1,877,927 on its fire protection services.
Some of the big capital expenditures will include $283,000 for resurfacing King Street in Sackville; $200,000 to replace the floating boardwalk in the Sackville Waterfowl Park; $150,000 for improvements to the Dorchester Square Memorial Park and $174,000 for the sidewalk on Queen’s Road.
