Saint John’s mayor says she is proud of the city’s efforts to get its finances in order.

In December, council approved a four-cent cut to the city’s property tax rate as part of its 2024 budget.

The rate now stands at $1.58 per $100 of assessment, a drop of 20.5 cents in three years.

Donna Reardon said a high tax rate can be a roadblock to attracting new people to a community.

“You’re just not on the map, a lot of times, especially when it comes to that business and industry, looking for where they will settle if they’re going to settle in New Brunswick,” Reardon said as part of a year-end interview.

For the longest time, Saint John had the highest property tax rate in the province, but that is no longer the case.

The mayor said the city has also worked hard to build up its fiscal reserves over the past few years.

That is something Reardon, who has served on council for more than a decade, hopes to see continue in 2024.

“Now we’re starting to build on that foundation. You’ve got your policies in place. In 2024, we’ll be borrowing against our own reserves. We never had reserves when I first started on council [in 2012],” she said.

“It’s a lot of work. It’s work from your whole finance team, it’s leadership of that team, it’s leadership of your CAO, it’s leadership of your council to make those hard decisions and to get us to where we need to be.”