Call it the summer of rural discontent. Soaring school taxes, BSE and low commodity prices coupled with a government too daft to make changes equals one thing - tax revolt. In the hamlet of Tilston a storm is brewing over school taxes where the Reeve of the RM of Albert is withholding $395,000 in school taxes from the provincial government, and is refusing to collect next year's school taxes from cash strapped ranchers and farmers.

What is interesting about this case is that there is no question that it is illegal for the RM to take this action as they are bound by law to collect school taxes and hand them over to the school divisions. But desperate times have called for desperate measures and this appears to be the only way to get the provincial government to listen up and take notice.

School and municipal property taxes are becoming a crisis in Manitoba as there are major discrepancies that still exist from one RM to another regarding the portion of school taxes generated from farmland. Fifty-eight out of 116 municipalities depend on farmland to support over 50 per cent of the school division tax base. Even though the ESL is coming down in Manitoba, little to nothing has been done to address the problem on school taxes collected from farmland.

Manitoba isn't the only province that is feeling the crunch on the property tax front - Saskatchewan's rates are also spiraling out of control. Our neighbour to the west depends on a staggering 60 per cent of school funding to come from school taxes on property. Since 1997 school taxes on Saskatchewan agricultural land have risen 26 per cent which is 116 per cent faster than inflation and in Manitoba that figure is over 79 per cent between 1990 and 1999. One fundamental difference between the Saskatchewan and Manitoba experience is that the government there has listened to the desperate pleas of their rural communities and announced a school tax review commission - the same needs to be done here.

It has become painfully obvious the property tax burden is unaffordable, the Province of Manitoba should conduct a comprehensive review of the school tax system to explore alternative education funding mechanisms. It is also time we looked at school boards and determine whether they are relevant in our society. Perhaps this cumbersome layer of bureaucracy should be removed and replaced by voluntary committees to oversee our schools.

Other options include the province and school divisions freezing all school taxes and implementing annual school tax cuts. The province should extend the scope of the Taxpayer Protection Act to municipalities and school boards so that all school and municipal tax increases must first be passed by voter approval through referendum.

The time for the provincial government to act is now before more RMs are forced to stop collecting school taxes. Rather than telling councillors to stop playing games, the province should be taking some of its own advice and stop playing with the livelihoods of thousands of Manitobans. A review commission would be a good first step to show our rural communities that this government recognizes there is life beyond the Perimeter Highway.