On January 15th, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) gave 16 recommendations to Sask Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer for consideration in his government's inaugural budget expected this spring. Fortunately, one of the CTF's highest priorities was already on the government's radar screen: school taxes.

Each year the CTF surveys its 16,800 supporters in Saskatchewan to identify what issues they most want addressed. On taxes, 61 percent identified school taxes as the most unfair and in need of reform in 2007. Municipal taxes were chosen by 12 percent, income taxes 10, fuel taxes 10, with the PST and business taxes cited by the remainder.

The message isn't new. Back in 2003, the Boughen Commission studied how schools were funded in the province. It found that Saskatchewan relies more on property tax to fund K-12 education than any other province in Canada. Yet, almost everyone they consulted believed that property taxes were unfair. Such taxes aren't levied in proportion to a taxpayer's ability to pay, the number of school age children in a household, or even whether a school exists in the area they reside.

The commission looked at options for addressing the problem, and ruled out tax credits and property tax rebates. Such options "would add to the administrative complexity, and would provide an indirect and likely delayed benefit to individuals" (p. 73). As well, "they would make little progress toward reducing the overall inequities in the property tax system and improving our provincial share of administration costs."

This, however, is exactly what we got. Property tax rebates were introduced in 2005. Although those rebates handed $106 million back to taxpayers last year, they still don't go far enough. Nor does the Sask Party's election promise to increase rebates to 20 percent for residential and commercial properties and 80 percent for agricultural land.

What the commission did propose is that the province reduce property taxes at the source by spending more on education through the general revenue fund. This is certainly possible. BC and the Maritime provinces don't use property tax whatsoever to fund education, an option many CTF supporters would endorse.

Had Boughen's recommendations been adopted, an additional $300 million would go to education from the province. This would have made education funding a 70/30 split between general revenues and property taxes. A wide swath of municipalities, school boards, and business groups would like to see this split be at least 60/40, while the CTF has proposed a 75/25 split. Even with current rebate programs, the status quo is about 50/50.

A second Sask Party pledge is the correct, though small step. Its election platform called for provincial funding to increase by 20 percent over 4 years, an additional $118 million investment. Moving even more aggressively on that target would be a tremendously welcome centerpiece of their first budget.