As the provincial government claims credit for reducing income taxes and balancing the budget, provincial off-loading of costs and responsibilities onto municipalities has driven up property taxes by an astonishing amount over the past 15 years.

A new Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) study shows that the property tax burden in Saskatchewan has been increasing much faster than the rate of inflation. While the inflation rate between 1985 and 2000 was 52.3%, or 3.5% per year on average, property taxes (which includes both municipal and school taxes) have rose by 73%, or 4.9% per year.

What is more alarming is that the brunt of that property tax increase has been borne in rural areas in the midst of the farm income crisis. In urban areas property taxes have risen by 65%, while in rural areas they have gone up by a whopping 87%. After 1992, the NDP's first full year in power, the burden of property tax increases largely shifted from urban to rural taxpayers. In urban areas property taxes rose by 5.8% per year before 1992 and 2.2% per year since then. In rural areas property taxes rose by 3.9% per year before 1992 and 5.9% per year thereafter.

But the real shift is not from urban to rural taxpayers - everyone is paying more. The real shift is in the political burden from provincial politicians to municipal politicians. The provincial government gets to balance the budget and reduce taxes while municipal governments are forced to deal with the costs of off-loading. Many municipalities and school boards have raised taxes to make up for provincial cuts to local government, and to meet provincially-mandated cost increases, such as higher salaries for teachers. Struggling rural areas are the most vulnerable.

The driving force behind the property tax increases are school taxes. In rural areas school taxes rose 116% between 1985 and 2000 - more than twice the rate of inflation. No wonder there have been rural tax revolts! The school tax burden on property owners in Saskatchewan is more than twice as heavy as the rest of the country. Property taxes fund 59% of our education costs, compared to an average of 26% for the other provinces. As a result we have the highest property taxes in the country relative to property value. In other provinces general revenues pay more of the education bill.

But what does it matter if the money comes from property taxes or other kinds of taxes via the province's general revenue It matters because property taxes are not fair or equitable. Because they are not based on ability to pay they can be an unreasonable burden on struggling farmers and homeowners on fixed-incomes, to provide two examples. Province-wide, the property tax burden is falling more heavily on rural areas that are struggling because of the farm income crisis. To provide our children with a decent education school taxes have risen in by 65% in urban areas and 116% in rural areas, and that's just wrong.

Municipal governments and school boards need to work harder to achieve efficiencies and keep taxes down, but the provincial government is the real source of the problem and the key to the solution. The two-year property tax rebate program for farmers, announced in the 2000 budget, seems very inadequate. What Saskatchewan needs is meaningful action to reduce the property tax burden and eliminate the problems inherent in the property tax system. To do so the province must stop off-loading and take a greater role in school funding.