Saskatchewan farmers are facing “dramatic” increases on the education portion of the property tax bills that will be mailed to them this summer.
The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities has surveyed two-thirds of its 297 municipalities. So far the numbers are showing a 13 percent average increase in education taxes for arable land and a 28 percent increase for pasture land.
Farmers in some RMs will be facing tax hikes in excess of 50 percent. Those in the RM of Eyebrow, for example, will be paying 52 percent more education tax than last year on arable land and 25 percent more on pasture land.
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A coalition of six farm groups has asked to meet with Saskatchewan premier Lorne Calvert to discuss the issue.
“He has put us off to meeting with the education minister, which doesn’t sit well with us,” said SARM president Sinclair Harrison.
“We feel it’s an important issue and something has to happen. We feel this requires the attention of the premier.”
Education minister Jim Melenchuk said the province has done its part to help pay for the ever increasing cost of schooling over the past couple of years.
He said the provincial operating grant for education has risen to $462 million this calendar year, compared to $397.5 million in 1999. This year’s $33.7 million increase is the largest in 15 years.
Melenchuk said the grant is the provincial government’s contribution to funding education. Setting and collecting taxes is the sole responsibility of the school boards.
Gary Shaddock is president of the Saskatchewan School Trustees Association, the voice of the pro-vince’s school boards. He said the 2001 property reassessment is what’s driving education taxes higher.
Of the 95 school boards, 67 reduced their mill rates, 26 made no change and two slightly raised their rates. Property taxes are calculated by multiplying assessed values by the mill rate.
“With reassessment, a mill now raises more money than it did in the past,” said Shaddock.
Those extra dollars will be spent on relieving some of the pent-up demand for new textbooks, updated computers and other necessary improvements.
“Over the past years (school boards) have been using up reserves and have been delaying maintenance on schools and also delaying program improvements,” said Shaddock.
“Boards aren’t just throwing money around. It’s an important issue for our children’s future and boards are being very careful and cautious with the money spent.”
School boards are big consumers of fuel and natural gas, two costs that are on the rise.
Harrison said those are also big costs for farming operations, which are facing higher property tax bills.
In 1999, the province introduced a two-year, $50 million rebate on the school tax levy on farmland. The 25 percent rebate applies to all farmland except the home quarter. The program expires this year.
Harrison said the coalition wants an assurance that the rebate program will be extended and wants the government to increase it beyond 25 percent.
Melenchuk said nothing is likely to happen until fall when departments begin discussing the next budget cycle.
“There has been no decision made at this time.”
He said the rebate program was designed to provide some relief to farmers while they tried to deal with the root problem, which is low prices for grains and oilseeds.
“If you had $9 wheat, you wouldn’t be worried too much about your property taxes,” said the minister.
Melenchuk said renewed calls for a tax revolt are not the answer to the problem.
“If you withhold your property taxes, what happens then is that you basically starve your school divisions and that will have impacts on services to your students in your own home town.”
