The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Each year, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation surveys its 16,800 supporters in Saskatchewan to identify what issues they most want addressed. On taxes, 61 per cent identified school taxes as the most unfair and in need of reform in 2007, far ahead of all other taxes. The message isnÕt new. Back in 2003, the Boughen Commission studied how schools were funded in the province. It found that Saskatchewan relies more on property tax to fund K-12 education than any other province. Yet, almost everyone they consulted believed that property taxes were unfair. Such taxes arenÕt levied in proportion to a taxpayerÕs ability to pay, the number of school age children in a household, or even whether a school exists in the area they reside. The commission looked at options for addressing the problem, and ruled out tax credits and property tax rebates. Such options Òwould add to the administrative complexity, and would provide an indirect and likely delayed benefit to individuals.Ó As well, Òthey would make little progress toward reducing the overall inequities in the property tax system and improving our provincial share of administration costs.Ó This, however, is exactly what we got. Property tax rebates were introduced in 2005. Although those rebates handed $106 million back to taxpayers last year, they still donÕt go far enough. Nor does the Sask PartyÕs election promise to increase rebates to 20 per cent for residential and commercial properties and 80 per cent for agricultural land. What the commission did propose is that the province reduce property taxes at the source by spending more on education through the general revenue fund. This is certainly possible. BC and the Maritime provinces donÕt use property tax whatsoever to fund education. Had BoughenÕs recommendations been adopted, an additional $300 million would go to education from the province. This would have made education funding a 70/30 split between general revenues and property taxes. A wide swath of municipalities, school boards, and business groups would like to see this split be at least 60/40. But even with current rebate programs, the status quo is about 50/50. A second Sask Party pledge is the correct, though small step. Its election platform called for provincial funding to increase by 20 per cent over four years, an additional $118 million investment. Moving even more aggressively on that target would be a tremendously welcome centerpiece of their first budget.
