SUSSEX, N.B. – A year after dropping its tax rate by two cents, Sussex is raising it again to tackle a “significant investment” in flood mitigation and other capital programs.
Sussex council approved its 2025 general budget at a council meeting Monday, which includes $11.5 million in revenue and expenditures, a $1.13 million or 9.8-per-cent increase. The budget increases the residential tax rate to $1.223 per $100 of assessment for town residents.
Mayor Marc Thorne said the tax increase is to help finance the town’s $38-million flood mitigation program, for which the town has committed $10.3 million. That’s part of a five-year, $60.6 million capital plan approved in August.
“We know that we have to begin generating capital now for that program,” Thorne said. “That is why we are raising the rate two cents, is to begin to work towards having that money.”
Last year, the town cut its tax rate by two cents, citing growth in its tax base from new construction. Thorne said in past years they’ve looked to cut during high growth rather than tax and spend, noting that the rate in 2007 was as high as $1.37.
“For the next few years, this is the exception, because of the significant investment we have to make,” Thorne said. “Increasing it a little bit now is going to, in the larger picture, it’s going to avoid us having any larger tax increases as we approach the years where we’re actually getting shovels in the ground and actually call the tenders for these projects.”
Mitigation to account for extra river flows
The town’s flood mitigation proposal includes diversionary channels from Trout Creek to the Kennebecasis River to account for extra flow during high weather events.
Council heard Monday that the town has completed the project registration with Infrastructure Canada.
CAO Scott Hatcher told council at its committee of the whole meeting Monday that the finances are in “a good spot,” giving the town the ability to “address a fundamental issue that has caused the most grief in the community.”
“If everything works the way we think it’s going to work, we’ll have that protection provided to the community by late 2028,” Hatcher said. He said the strategy of funding part of the project out of its operating budget offers council “some sort of control” of what council will be able to accomplish down the road.
The province also helped fund a berm to protect houses on Meadow Crescent in Sussex Corner. The town announced Friday that lidar scanning is underway to develop a terrain survey of the project area, and on Monday council heard about land acquisition deals to acquire some of the necessary property to carry out the project.
“We’ve got a lot of work underway to get us to a point where we’re advancing the flood mitigation in real terms, by burning diesel and pushing dirt, and we’ll make that happen in 2025,” Hatcher said.
At the committee of the whole meeting, treasurer Heather Moffett walked council through the increases in expenditures. That includes about $115,000 for protective services, a 3.9-per-cent increase, which includes a 3.5-per-cent increase in RCMP costs, Moffett said. There is about $188,000 more in transportation, a 7.6-per-cent increase related to salaries and work to offset the end of a snow removal contract, about $131,000 in environmental development, a 19-per-cent increase, including the town’s mural program and facade program, and about $278,000 in recreation and cultural services, a 15.9-per-cent increase, related to wages, electricity and heating, Moffett said.
Fiscal services also went up $415,000, or 94.6 per cent, due to how the town is now handling its capital budgeting, Moffett said. She said about $506,000 has been set aside to reduce future borrowing for the town’s capital plan. That plan also includes asphalt and road work for new subdivisions and improvements to the 8th Hussars Sports Centre, Brunswick News reported in August.
Environmental health services increased by only about $6,000, or 0.8 per cent, because a decrease in solid waste costs was offset by higher tipping fees, Moffett told council. General services costs went down $993, or 0.1 per cent, with Moffett saying she’d worked to “keep increases neutral” at the committee of the whole meeting.
Focus remains on expenditures
Thorne said the administration is keeping to council’s direction to be “very focused” on expenditures to make sure that while they save for flood mitigation, they can “still be able to deliver the services and capital projects like street infrastructure to our citizens.”
The value of assessments has increased by $68.7 million, or 10.8 per cent, to $707 million for total incoming tax revenue of $9.42 million, or $1.04 million more than last year. The town saw a 13.9-per-cent decrease in its provincial grant from the province, which stands at about $357,000.
Thorne said that they “fully expect” the growth in the community to continue, including existing subdivision work on Buchanan Drive and St. George Street as well as interested parties who have been communicating with the city.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that we’re going to see aggressive investment in this community,” he said.
From 2010 to 2016, the town’s tax rate fluctuated around $1.25 before rising up to $1.2889 from 2019 to 2021, then coming back down via cuts of two cents in 2022 and 4.59 cents in 2023.
Thorne said that is still on the “low end” for other area municipalities of similar size, rattling off a list of approximate 2024 tax rates ranging from $1.19 in Rothesay, $1.31 in Grand-Bay Westfield, $1.28 in Hampton and Quispamsis and $1.45 in Shediac during the meeting.
“What we want to make sure we do, what money we do collect we spend wisely so people can see a return on that investment,” he said.
Council also approved a water and sewer rate increase of 2.22 per cent for flat rate and metered customers as part of anticipated cost increases for goods, services and materials. Council also voted to maintain an 18-cent levy related to the town’s business improvement area.
Non-residential accounts pay 1.5 per cent the residential rate, which would amount to a rate of $1.8345 per $100. For residents of the former Sussex local district, the tax rate will also increase by two cents to $0.717 as the town continues to harmonize the two tax rates.
Feature image by iStock.com/Greenseas
