'A real mess on their hands': Sussex mayor worries over property assessment freeze

Sussex Mayor Marc Thorne was initially sympathetic when he heard the province plans to freeze property assessments next year, until he discovered the freeze only works one way – stopping assessment increases but not decreases.

"They've got a real mess on their hands that was created by [Service New Brunswick]," said Thorne. 

"I could understand they would want to get into a freeze until they straighten things out. But to say you are going to put a freeze on any increases, but you're not going to freeze any decreases, is really quite unfair."

• Province to freeze property assessments in 2018 after fumbles this year
• New Brunswick property tax system inflated home values by combined $52M, records show

On Wednesday, Environment and Local Government Minister Serge Rousselle announced the province is imposing an assessment freeze for 2018 in response to the continuing controversy over inflated tax bills issued to several hundred homeowners earlier this year.

He also said there would be exceptions for properties that are sold, renovated with a building permit, or where assessment values are falling.

Exceptions will "apply in cases where a property assessment decreases due to market forces," said a government release explaining the policy.

Concern for municipalities

Thorne said he's alarmed by a freeze that will treat assessment increases and decreases differently. 

Property values in Sussex have been under severe pressure since the potash mine outside of town closed down last year. That put a premium on the few assessments in the town that still go up, he said.

This year, on St. George Street, 44 properties had their assessments reduced by a combined $246,900.

But the tax hit was wiped out when three apartment buildings around the corner, on McKenna Avenue, had their assessments increased by a combined $351,300.

Similar exchanges took place all over Sussex.

Assessments on 32 properties on Court Street tumbled but were partly offset by assessment increases at the town's elementary and high school.

And on Cedar Avenue property values slumped on 22 homes but were softened by a $26,500 assessment increase on a hotel, the Amsterdam Inn, two streets over.

The assessment increases were not enough to offset all of the decreases, said Thorne.

But they helped enough so the town could limit an increase in its tax rate this year to one cent, which financed its $6.9 million budget.

Significant problems

Thorne said he could support freezing all assessments or no assessments.

We would most certainly be looking at less money to work with, and potentially another increase on our tax rate.- Sussex Mayor Marc Thorne

But for a community like his – one that's coping with falling property values – the decision to freeze assessment increases only causes significant problems, he said.

"In the environment we currently find ourselves in, with the mine closure, we would most certainly be looking at less money to work with, and potentially another increase on our tax rate," he said.

Sussex has not been a community known for tax increases.

When the potash mine drove up property values a decade ago, the town lowered its tax rate nine per cent rather than keep the windfall.

But now Thorne worries the one-way assessment freeze planned for next year may change that.

"I'm really not supportive of that part of it," he said.