Regina: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) Provincial Director Richard Truscott met with Finance Minister Eric Cline today and submitted recommendations for the upcoming provincial budget. Among these is a proposal to sell Crown assets and establish a "Future Fund" to help fund schools and relieve the property tax burden.

"Our school age children are being squeezed between provincial funding cuts and tapped-out municipal taxpayers. Unless we find a way to fund the schools without breaking the back of taxpayers, we risk nothing less than the future of our children and our economy," warns Truscott.

The CTF proposes that the government open up the ownership of Crown corporations to private partners and shareholders, and use the proceeds to pay down the province's debt. The money saved from interest payments would go into a "Future Fund" that would help fund K-12 education and allow local school taxes to be reduced by one-half for all property taxpayers.

"The Future Fund would be a very visible way to help fund schools, improve the quality of education, and lessen the burden on taxpayers," says Truscott.

School and property taxes have skyrocketed while rural incomes have dwindled and the provincial government has retreated from school funding. About 61% of the cost of schooling in Saskatchewan is now covered by local property taxes, the second highest school tax burden in Canada. The pressure on school taxes is expected to get worse.

"In this new century our personal and our province's prosperity depends more than ever on education and brainpower. How can Saskatchewan, already crippled by high taxes, a struggling farm economy, and low job growth, succeed if our education system fails due to lack of funding and exhausted taxpayers " asks Truscott.

"Fortunately, Saskatchewan has a choice and a way to cut school taxes and still fund our schools - it's time to sell the Crowns," he says. "The age of government-owned dinosaurs is over. But by selling Crown assets, and establishing a Future Fund, these icons of the past can do our future a great service."

"Our Crowns represent the economy of the past; our schools and children represent the economy of our future. We cannot afford to hold onto the past at the expense of the future," concluded Truscott.