New Brunswick homeowners by the tens of thousands are facing property tax increases in 2025, and New Brunswick municipalities remain without powers promised to them two elections ago that could help slow or even stop the surge.

Andrew Black, president of the Union of the Municipalities of New Brunswick, said hope has faded that municipal financial reforms — first pledged by Blaine Higgs in 2018 — will arrive before a new wave of property tax increases wash over homeowners in large numbers again …