School taxes going up in Manitoba

When the Manitoba government eliminated the Education Support Levy from the property tax bill, the CTF raised concerns the school boards would come in and make up the tax room vacated by the province. Now that the budgets are in, our concerns have come true.

From today's Winnipeg Free Press (subscribers only):

ST. James-Assiniboia School Division homeowners are facing a 13.9 per cent increase in property taxes -- the highest hike in school taxes in Winnipeg this year.
Elsewhere, the increases in school property taxes range from 3.4 per cent in Winnipeg School Division to 4.4 per cent in River East Transcona, 4.9 in Louis Riel, 5.5 in Pembina Trails, and six per cent in Seven Oaks. Winnipeg's St. Norbert neighbourhood will be paying 13.2 per cent more in local school taxes to Seine River School Division.

"We're really going to have to revisit how we fund education in Manitoba -- the province is going to have to start bearing more of the burden," said Adrienne Batra, of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.