property tax revolt!

[ivbinconned]

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Saskatchewan
August 19, 2003
School tax revolt brewing in Manitoba

The Rural Municipality of Albert, Manitoba is withholding $395 thousand in school taxes from the provincial government, and refusing to collect next year’s school taxes from cash-strapped ranchers and farmers.

Reeve Tom Campbell and the four councillors near Tilston unanimously decided at a recent meeting to stop collecting the tax after a request from Tilston-area farmer Brian Sterling.

“I said our cows are only worth $100 and we aren’t go to be able to pay (school tax),” said Sterling in an interview with the Canadian Press.

Reeve Tom Campbell agreed, and plans to send a letter to other Manitoba rural municipalities encouraging them to join the revolt.

What’s interesting about this case is that it is unquestionably illegal for the municipality to take this action. As is the case in Saskatchewan, municipal councils are bound by law to collect school taxes and turn them over to the school divisions.

This is a desperate action in response to desperate times. School and municipal property taxes are a crisis in both Saskatchewan and Manitoba. This begs the question: Will rural municipalities in Saskatchewan go down this road? We suspect that conditions ripe for another tax revolt in our province.

The only province in Canada with a more severe school tax burden than Manitoba is Saskatchewan. In Manitoba, a staggering 51 per cent of school funding comes from school taxes on property. In Saskatchewan, that percentage has soared to 60 per cent.

Since 1997, school taxes on Saskatchewan agricultural land have risen 116 per cent faster than inflation. Over the years, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) has presented three separate petitions (a total of 31,352 signatures) calling for reductions to school taxes, and a review to identify alternatives to the current school-funding model.

A victory for CTF supporters came when our recommendation for a school tax review was accepted by Finance Minister Jim Melenchuk in the last budget.

Chaired by the likeable former-Moose Jaw Mayor Ray Boughen, the K-12 review commission is visiting communities across the province to hear citizen’s views. Mr. Boughen has an outstanding record of holding the line on taxes in his own community, and the CTF has his commitment that the views of taxpayers will be fairly and sympathetically reflected when the commission finalizes its report by the end of the year.

The CTF will tell the commission that school taxes are inherently unfair, that the value of property is not necessarily a reflection of wealth, and that schools should be funded through the general revenue fund. We will also tell the commission that it’s time we looked at school boards and determine whether they are truly relevant in our society, and suggest this cumbersome layer of bureaucracy be removed.

It’s time our politicians showed some leadership on this festering problem and act BEFORE municipalities stop collecting school taxes. A great first step is to stand before the school tax commission, and tell them exactly what you think of school taxes in our communities.

For more information on where you can present to the commission, visit their web site at www.cfe.gov.sk.ca, or contact them at 1-866-323-5076.

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David MacLean
Saskatchewan Provincial Director,
Canadian Taxpayers Federation

High resolution photo of Dave MacLean

Let's Talk Taxes is a weekly commentary provided to media outlets by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation - Saskatchewan. The CTF is a non-profit, non-partisan, educational and advocacy organization funded by free-will contributions. Permission is granted to reprint or broadcast this material with appropriate attribution. Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Suite 105 - 438 Victoria Ave East, Regina, SK S4N 0N7 Phone: (306) 352-7199 Fax: (306) 352-7203
E-mail:mailto:dmaclean@taxpayer.com W ebsite: www.taxpayer.com











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[dalek]

Here in Ontario it's not a matter of municipalities not collecting taxes from farmers, farmers just don't have the money and the municipalities are now catching on to the fact that some of them just won't have the money to pay their snow plow drivers this winter.

[almoy]

The government will pay for another study and then do nothing. Next year our taxes will be even higher.

[ivbinconned]

Lets tell our reeves and council, today, that we have had enough SARM resolutions. It is time to act. And if not collecting is breaking the law and some one has to go to jail...I volunteer.

[cowman]

In Alberta about half of our land taxes are made up of the school tax. The municipality has managed to hold the line the last few years but the school tax portion has been going up.
I went to a seminar on Sask. two years ago and the guy doing it said the provincial government had always rebated the school tax. Now I realize they don't do that anymore.
So I have to ask: If the money doesn't come from land taxes, where will it come from? It seems to me that Sask. and Manitoba have pretty well maxxed out all the other taxes? Where will that money come from? Will it come out of roads, hospitals, Agriculture subsidies?

[ivbinconned]

Good question Cowman, and here is one possible answer. The Saskatchewan Crown Corporations have sqandered and lost millions and millions in provincial schemes and millions and millions in foreign projects. The ministers of this government are wolves in sheeps clothing.
Funny isn't it how they rail against private capitol and private corporate management but just love running corporations that are under written by the gullible NDP voter.
Just noticed something else too. From 1995 to 2002 Provincial and local Government employment in Saskatchewan averaged around 103,000 but there has been a spike from 2002 to 2003 of 10,000. And now the election.

[almoy]

That is a lot of government jobs when our population is under a million. No wonder we are taxed to death.

Our education tax was never refunded. For 2 years the government refunded about 25% of the school tax on farmland excluding the home quarter. The program was scrapped.