This week, the Province has mailed the 2025 Property Tax Bills. These bills include, amongst other fees, the property tax payable to the Municipality, based on the rate set by Town Council during budget deliberations.
In New Brunswick, property assessments determine the amount of property tax payable each year. These assessments are done exclusively by Service New Brunswick. The Town receives the total assessment base for taxation in the Fall to determine the budget accordingly, without any property-specific information. Assessment notices are mailed in January of each year, prior to the tax bills being mailed in March.
In 2025, the Town maintained the tax rates across all sub-units. However, the rate of shared services paid by former local service district (LSD) sub-units was lowered from 90% to approximately 78% for 2025. The funds received from property taxes in the Municipality fund the annual Operating Budget, which can be found online here.
The taxes that form property tax bills being mailed this week, however, are not all provided to the Municipality. Property tax bills include fees such as:
- Local Government Rate: This is the amount payable based on the rate set by your local government, in this case, the Town of Salisbury. The amount collected by the Town is known as the warrant, which forms the majority of the Town’s Operating Budget.
- Special Provincial Levy: This is $0.4115 per $100 of assessment and is provided to the Province to cover services under the jurisdiction of NBDTI (the Provincial transportation department) in the former local service districts. In 2025, this is $2.43M that goes to the Province from residents of the Town.
- “Residential – Other” Rate: The Province charges an additional rate ($1.0345 per $100 of assessment) on any portion of residential property over 0.5 hectares (1.23 acres) in addition to the municipal rate. In our Town, there are over 2,000 properties that have this rate applied to their bill. In 2025, this is over $700,000 that is provided to the Province and does not come to the Town.
- Non-Residential Provincial Rate(s): The Province charges a rate for non-residential properties, which is $1.8560 per $100/assessment. In the Town, this is over $760,000 that is paid to the Province and is not received by the Town.
In New Brunswick, municipalities continue to call on the Provincial government to complete the Local Governance Reform process and undertake fiscal reform. Costs continue to rise for both residents and municipalities, but communities have limited power to raise the required revenue other than through property tax. Property taxes account for 84% of total revenue amongst municipalities in 2023, up 12.8% from 2001. In Salisbury, property tax accounts for over 90% of revenue in 2025, given the Municipality’s limited revenue-generating options. The Town, like other municipalities, will continue to urge the New Brunswick government to undertake fiscal reform and reduce the burden on residential property taxes to fund the increasing downloaded services that municipalities are expected to provide. More information on fiscal reform and the position of municipalities in New Brunswick, including the Town of Salisbury, can be found online here: https://umnb.ca/fiscal-reform/.
In the coming weeks, the Town will be issuing a number of posts on the Town of Salisbury Facebook Page, outlining a number of facts and information with respect to property assessments, tax bills, and the Town’s 2025 Operating Budget.