West St. Paul homeowners cry foul over school-tax hike

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/03/2016 (3522 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

West St. Paul residents are facing an average education tax increase of $430 per household, and its mayor and council are crying foul.

The education tax increase from the Seven Oaks School Division works out to an average 17 per cent jump across the capital region municipality.

“We need a review of how education is funded. Our model shows that’s it’s broken,” said West St. Paul Mayor Bruce Henley.

But Brian O’Leary, Seven Oaks School Division superintendent, said school division taxes are only up 3.3 per cent. The main reason for the big increase to West St. Paul is its property values have shot up so much, while Winnipeg values have remained flat.

Seven Oaks covers West Kildonan, Maples, and Garden City, in addition to the RM of West St. Paul and a small portion of the RM of St. Andrews.

“What’s happened there is essentially the value of homes in West St. Paul have caught up with comparable homes in Winnipeg, and resulted in their paying a greater portion of our budget,” O’Leary said.

Seven Oaks wages were held to two per cent, while enrollment has grown by three per cent. The school division’s costs are $1,000 per pupil below the provincial average, he added.

Seven Oaks is also much more dependant on residential property taxes than some other school divisions. The commercial-industrial tax based in Seven Oaks is just $293 million, versus $1.25 billion in St. James School Division, O’Leary said.

Henley said not only is the education-tax increase too steep, but many people end up blaming the municipality because it collects education taxes for the province.

“We send out tax bill in a West St. Paul envelope, it’s on bill made out to West St. Paul, and we collect the money. But we get no benefit from it and all the flak,” Henley said.

Factoring in higher assessed property values, a survey of West St. Paul’s five elected officials found education-tax increases of 5.5 per cent, 9.6 per cent, 11.3 per cent, 14.1 per cent, and 21.3 per cent, respectively.

Henley said a new government should negotiate school budgets instead of the 37 school boards to provide more consistency. It should also look at a new funding model when it comes to commercial-industrial taxes, he said.

It might be time school divisions underwent further amalgamation, similar to what took place in 2002 when school boards were reduced to 37 from 54, he added. The province recently put rural municipalities through an amalgamation process, shrinking the number from 199 down to 137.

Henley said only two out of 37 school divisions in the province are growing, and one of those is Seven Oaks.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca