Taxes
During my election campaign, the one issue I heard repeated from every corner of Ward 11 is the growing burden of property taxes. Over the past decade, we have seen skyrocketing tax bills with no end insight.
Ive said it once, I’ll say it again. This must stop. The “Pay-as-you-Grow” formula only works up until it hurts the wallets of Frederictonians, and I have heard loud and clear that that time is now. First of all, let me illustrated what is happening.
In New Brunswick, it is the provincial government that assesses properties here and around the province. The municipality applies a property tax rate to that assessed value. If one of those values goes up, you pay more.
What I learned going door-to-door is that most people do not care what end is climbing. What matters is that at the end of the day, when those numbers hit, more and more money is leaving their wallets that should be spent on renovations, retirement, education or simply getting by.
As a city councillor, I recognize that I cannot control the assessments. Even if I could, it’s not a bad thing to hear your home is worth more than it was last year. I refuse to pass the buck onto the provincial government. What I can do is work to make sure our tax rate works for the citizens of this city.
When doing this, I will operate under this frame of mind:
1. We are Fredericton, and just because we are lower than other municipalities does not mean we cannot try harder. Saying that other municipalities have higher rate to deflect the voice of our residents is wrong. I represent the voice of Ward 11, Fredericton, New Brunswick. My constituents determine if they pay too much tax.
2. City Hall has grown comfortably absorbing much of the increases and I’m not convinced tough decisions have been made across the board. I want to monitor and examine the size of government here in the city and also examine the programs we have in place. If programs do not work, they should go and the services that Frederictonians depend on should be strengthened.
3. Pensions don’t grow faster than inflation and with the global downturn, we know our investments and wage increases without promotion are not growing faster either, so Fredericton’s municipal government should not be an exception. If a business raised it’s prices like taxes are collected, it would be long gone. We should be operating under that standard.
To me, the formula is simple. If the total value of properties increases by a percentage greater than inflation, adjust the rate to reflect that. That way, if your house grows by greater than that property value increase, you will have to pay more, if your home does not, you don’t pay more.
The city of Winnipeg decided to implement this long ago and right now, if your home there has grown in value by 87% since 2002, you are still paying the same as you did then, if your property value has exceeded or grown slower, you pay respectively higher or lower.
Lets make our taxes stable, and then give you the break you deserve.
