Question: Do you feel you now have more dollars in your own pocket thanks to the much heralded tax cuts imparted by our governments If you answered no, you're not far off the mark. Tax cuts have quickly become a shell game for our politicians, designed to maximize political credit and minimize lost revenue, rather than delivering real relief.

The good news is that the provincial government continues to make some limited progress toward reducing Saskatchewan's outrageously high income taxes. Effective January 1, 2002, the tax rate paid on the first $30,000 decreases from 11.5% to 11.25%, the rate on the next $30,000 drops from 13.5% to 13.25%, and the rate applied to any income over $60,000 will go from 16% to 15.5%. In addition, the child tax credit increases from $1,500 to $2,000 for each child, and the senior's tax credit rises from $500 to $750. According to the government, the average Sask family earning $50,000 a year will pay over $800 less income tax than back in 1999.

Taxpayers, however, would be wise to look at the total tax take, not just income taxes, when deciding whether their overall tax burden is actually shrinking. For starters, you may recall that a couple of budgets ago, the provincial government started to cut income taxes. But at the same time it also expanded the number of goods and services subject to the PST. That's the first bite taken out of the income tax cuts, likely worth hundreds of dollars per year.

The second bite comes from bracket creep. Simply put, even though the government in Regina "de-linked" the provincial tax system from the federal one, they neglected to adjust the new provincial tax brackets and credits to inflation, at least not until 2003. As a result the so-called income tax relief amount to much less than is being touted by the politicians because inflation has been eating away at the value of taxpayers' income, pushing us into higher tax brackets, and making the provincial credits worth less. Again, this may amount to tens of millions of dollars taxed back by our provincial government, and fewer bucks in our pockets, wallets, and purses.

The last major bite comes courtesy of municipal and school tax hikes. Since 1985, property taxes in Saskatchewan have risen by an average of almost 5% per year, much faster than inflation (not to mention faster than the growth in personal incomes or land values). The villain: you guessed it, the provincial government. The province has continued to off-loaded financial responsibilities onto local municipal government and school boards without providing the necessary financial resources to pay the bills. As a result local governments and school boards are often forced to turn around and jack up their mill rates. (School taxes alone have risen in rural areas by 56% since 1992).

Add it all up, and Saskatchewan still has sky high taxes. Empirical proof comes from November 2001 study by the Dominion Bond Rating Service (DBRS) that calculates the relative total tax burden in each Canadian province (i.e. all taxes including personal income tax, sales tax, business taxes, payroll taxes, gas taxes, etc). The DBRS study showed Saskatchewan had a tax burden rating of 1.25 in 2000-01 compared with the national average of 1.0 and Alberta at .81, even as the implementation of the provincial government's new income tax cuts was in full swing. The study notes: "Accordingly, Saskatchewan had by far the highest relative tax burden in 2000-01, while Alberta continued to have the lowest."

What must be done, you say For starters, our policy-makers must actually start to reduce the total tax burden, not simply shift it around.