No, you aren't hallucinating -- the Saskatchewan government is indeed providing desperately-needed school tax relief for agricultural producers. And while this announcement has taken far too long, progress is welcome.

For decades, rate payers made a compelling case that school taxes on property are too high and inherently unfair. For this government, it was surprisingly difficult to acknowledge this injustice and act on it.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) has made school tax relief its chief priority in recent years. We've collected and delivered thousands of signatures calling for relief, given hundreds of media interviews and made submissions to government making our case. We've released reports, statements and published commentaries like the one you are reading.

Specifically, the CTF delivered more than 30,000 signatures calling for a commission to study how schools are funded and make recommendations for reducing school taxes on property. The government listened. In 2003, the province announced a commission, chaired by Ray Boughen.

Later that year, the CTF made a submission to the committee recommending an increase in the provincial share of school funding to 75 per cent, which would require an additional investment of $350 million per year.

In the 2003 provincial election the NDP committed to "continue reducing taxes" and promised they had "room to receive the recommendations of the Boughen Commission."

The Boughen Commission released its recommendations in early 2004 which included increasing the PST by a point and reducing school taxes by injecting an additional $300 million into K-12 education funding - not far off from the CTF proposal.

In the 2004 budget the province obliged by increasing the PST by a point, but didn't provide a whiff of school tax relief! This is just one of many broken government promises.

Last year, the government announced a two-year $110 million school tax rebate for all property classes. While this was a step forward, it did little to address the growing school tax problem for farmers. The CTF released a report in 2005 showing how arbitrary assessment increases hiked taxes by an average of 6 per cent on all property classes. The government's rebate program amounted to little more than lip service.

Just before Christmas the CTF delivered an early Christmas gift for the government - 20 thousand more signatures calling for school tax relief. In response, Government Relations Minister Len Taylor gave the first major hint that school tax relief was forthcoming.

The recent announcement increases school tax relief for farmers by another 30 per cent. This is a good chunk of change for farmers who pay as much as $6,000 a year in school taxes alone.

Farmers can chalk this up as a win for their years of persistence but it's unconscionable that the government left it this long. Now we need to move forward on permanent school tax relief for everyone.

Remember that PST increase That little stunt takes at least $130 million a year out of taxpayers' wallets. The school tax relief announced by the government only spends $52 million of it. Is it too much to ask that all of the PST hike be directed toward school tax relief across all property classes The PST was, after all, increased on false pretenses.

Keep in mind that Saskatchewan is in unique in Canada in how we fund education - all other provinces fund education out of the General Revenue Fund to a greater extent than we do.

The announced 30 per cent reduction is a welcome but temporary reprieve. Let's take the next step toward overhauling the entire system so all classes of taxpayers benefit.