For the first time in years, rural municipal delegates at their annual convention did not debate a resolution about education tax on farmland.
The thorny issue first appeared on the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities agenda in 1964. Councillors have since lobbied for the tax to be reduced, if not entirely removed.
They have scolded cabinet ministers during bearpit sessions and protested at the legislature.
SARM president David Marit, who was re-elected by acclamation, said delegates were silent last week because they are waiting to see what the new government will do.
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During the election campaign last fall, the Saskatchewan Party laid out a plan to double property tax rebates on agricultural land over four years.
The provincial budget was to be announced yesterday, March 19.
“The budget will keep the campaign promise,” premier Brad Wall told the convention March 11.
That would see the education tax rebate for agricultural landowners go to 47 from 38 percent in the 2008-09 fiscal year.
The average landowner, with two cultivated sections, who is paying $4,430 per year in education property tax, would see a rebate of $2,082.
By 2011-12, the rebate would total $3,544, assuming no tax increase.
Wall said a long-term solution to change the way education is funded is even more important.
Jim Reiter, the MLA for Rosetown-Elrose, is charged with developing that solution as legislative secretary to the minister of education with responsibility for the property tax initiative.
Meanwhile, another contentious school issue was on delegates’ minds. They passed a resolution asking the government to place a moratorium on school closures.
Education minister Ken Krawetz had already told them there is no moratorium now and the government won’t issue one.
“We wanted boards to consider, to take a step back,” he said.
