When the provincial government eliminated the Education Support Levy in the 2006 budget, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) applauded the elimination but cautioned this would be another chance for school boards to raise taxes. The CTF was correct when raising this red flag since every cent the ESL was reduced has been made up in local school taxes as Manitoba taxpayers will have to once again brace themselves for a significant increase.

As most Manitoba municipalities have done a decent job in keeping their mill rates frozen, the same cannot be said for Manitoba's school divisions. Raising school taxes has become a dreaded annual tradition and the time has come for a serious discussion on about how we fund our schools. Nearly 70 percent of CTF supporters have expressed that a majority of school funding should be coming from the general revenue fund.

School division taxes have increased by over 80 percent since 1990, last year alone a number of divisions had double-digit increases, but what has made this situation worse was a pay hike for school division trustees. Further, over the past few years, a majority of CTF supporters have said they would like the provincial government to expand the Balanced Budget/Taxpayer Protection/Debt Retirement Act to school boards so that all school tax increases must first be passed by voter approval through referendum.

Clearly school divisions in Manitoba have shown no willingness or the ability to keep spending under control as evidence with the $16 million increase in salaries for division managers and supervisors, $8 million increase for secretaries and clerical staff and $21 million for staff development, communications and travel.

Documents obtained by the Winnipeg Sun show Manitoba's largest school division, Winnipeg One, increased its workforce by 419 full time equivalent employees. Between 2000 and 2007, the staff complement at the division increased from 3,793 to 4,212. But as the Sun notes, as staff was being added to the taxpayer funded payroll, student enrollment declined by 724 students.

The bureaucrats also wanted to get in on some of the action and hired 15 more senior staff. All the while school boards claim poverty, tell taxpayers they have cut to the bone, and the provincial government doesn't do a thing.

The Minister of Education, who has been absent from the entire debate, needs to recognize that homeowners would be much better served by centralizing taxing and spending through the provincial tax base. As for students, they would be better off if issues like curriculum were devolved to the local level, putting decision making or management power backing into the hands of parents, principals and educators.

In the short-term, the CTF is recommending the provincial government freeze school taxes for this fiscal year, something they have the authority to do. However, this will only address the problem in the interim, there must be a long-term strategy put into place to increase the provincial share of education funding to 100 percent.

Inaction on the school tax debate will only exacerbate the public's frustration; for a government that will likely be facing the electorate in less than a year, they might want to consider another strategy.