There is more than wheat growing this summer under the prairie sun. As farm incomes have dropped to disastrous levels, anger is growing among farmers who are on the verge of rebelling against big increases in property taxes.

It was recently reported that farmers in the Rural Municipality of Benson have been talking of tax revolt. One of the tax protest organizers told the Star-Phoenix "There is no accountability. We have got to rein them in someway, and this is probably the only way to do it."

While farm incomes have dwindled, property taxes have increased 52% since the mid-1980s. It is bad enough that our governments are putting the squeeze on farmers who are suffering through a terrible income crisis. What's even worse is that some taxpayers are desperate enough, and frustrated enough with unresponsive politicians, to consider breaking the law by refusing to pay taxes.

In much of Saskatchewan, citizens have a lawful and democratic remedy to increased property taxes and other actions of municipal politicians. The provincial acts that define municipal government for cities and northern areas provide a means of petitioning local government, and putting so-called "citizen initiatives" to a popular vote. For example, the residents of Regina could initiate a referendum calling for tax increases to be approved by the people. If it passed, tax increases in Regina would have to be put to a public vote.

However, this democratic outlet is DENIED to citizens in rural areas of Saskatchewan. It is strangely missing from the Rural Municipalities Act that governs areas of the province hit hardest by the farm income crisis and property tax increases.

So is a tax revolt really the only remedy available to desperate farmers That question must be answered by both provincial and municipal politicians.

First of all, both levels of government should acknowledge that you can't get blood from a stone, and reconsider the actions that have led farmers to the brink of a tax revolt. Municipalities are getting the brunt of rural anger, but provincial politicians are in many ways the villains of the piece. In order to trim the provincial budget and taxes, they shifted the burden onto municipal taxpayers through changes to the property tax system, provincially-mandated cost increases (in teachers pay, for example), and funding cuts.

This provincial strategy might be summed up as "spread the pain and duck the blame."

In response to the rural tax crisis, the CTF is calling for tax relief and an immediate provincial review of the property tax system, similar to the ongoing review of income taxes. The province should also amend the Rural Municipalities Act to allow rural citizens the same democratic rights of petition, citizen initiative, and referendum available in the cities and in the north.

If the province is unwilling to give rural citizens a legitimate outlet for tax protest, they must bear a portion of the responsibility if there is a tax revolt.