Education Minister Nancy Allan has signalled that property owners should prepare to be hosed by education tax increases this year.

Ms. Allan, of course, did not frame the signal in those words — she said this week that the government will not order school divisions to freeze tax rates — but it cynically amounts to the same thing.

Ms. Allan has not been long on the job. But she has been on the job long enough to know that a perfect storm is gathering around education property taxes, one from which she should be seeking to shield taxpayers. But instead, she declares it’s every school division for itself.

The perfect storm starts with the divisions, which have been agreeing to pay more teachers much more money to teach ever fewer children. Contract settlements have reached several times the rate of inflation, the most recent at 4.8 per cent, which will quickly become the norm for all. Why the settlements are so high is anybody’s guess in the current economic climate. But given the current economic climate — the government, which promised a balanced budget last spring, is already $600 million in deficit — the province is not going to be paying those wage increases, which leaves the hapless property owner, as Ms Allan must know.

To complicate — or is that implicate? — the situation, tax assessments this year have climbed on average 67 per cent under the recent reassessment. That dramatic rise, however, should not lead to a dramatic increase in property taxes. If everyone follows the City of Winnipeg’s policy of cutting mill rates by a 67 per cent equivalent to offset the expanded assessment base, a tax grab by stealth will not occur. That’s a policy, however, that the school divisions have ignored in the past, claiming to have frozen tax (mill) rates knowing that they would raise more lucre anyway. In 2002, for example, Winnipeg division raked in an extra $8 million under the scheme.

And what are taxpayers getting for this? The NDP government in its wisdom refuses to require standardized tests so there is no way of knowing. All we know is that in the absence of data, the province has reduced the school year from 200 days to as low as 193 to placate Labour Day vacationers, and it has guaranteed teachers that 10 of those days will be set aside for professional development.

At the same time, there are 136 more teachers on the job, in part because the government did not want to appear soft on obesity and declared that the reduced time in class should be further reduced by sending students to the gym.

So why is Ms. Allan ignoring all this and refusing to freeze education taxes? Because, while she’s a new minister, she is playing the same cynical game as the old ministers.

The government needs money, now more than ever, to cover the fact that its spending problems are bigger than its revenue problems in these tough times. Giving the green light to school divisions relieves the government of its responsibility to properly fund public education, as opposed to public education tax rebates.

But even more cynical is that, while the government refuses to accept responsibility, it hectors and lectures school trustees for raising property taxes in the absence of sufficient provincial funding.

Which is what Ms. Allan announced — she will not freeze taxes, she instead will pass judgement when taxes are raised.

So prepare to get hosed. But don’t blame the boards. This is the minister’s doing.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/editorials/prepare-to-get-hosed-81060087.html

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