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Abolishing the provincial property tax on homes was attractive. While eight provinces fund K-12 education through a province-wide property tax, Manitobans were the only ones who put up with two property taxes to fund their public schools.

Yes, there is now one less tax. But government got rid of the wrong one.

The provincial property tax was worth about $145 million. It was applied equally across the province. No matter where you lived, you paid the same rate as homeowners in every other school division in Manitoba.

It was fair — ratepayers made the same tax effort regardless of where they lived. Unfortunately, this uniform tax on homes is what the provincial government just abolished.

The other tax — the one homeowners are stuck with — is the one school boards levy. It’s extremely unfair. It brings in about $587 million and ranges from 18 to 35 mills, depending on which division you live in.

As provincial government funding fails to keep pace with rising costs of actually operating schools (currently the province funds only 56 per cent), school division taxes rise. This is what is rightfully driving homeowners to distraction. This is the tax to eliminate. This is the one that will start to devour money “saved” through nixing the provincial property tax.

The provincial government should have taken two bold steps. First, roll the provincial property tax and the school divisions’ property tax into a single tax (much like the one it’s getting rid of) — and apply one uniform mill rate for homeowners across the province. Ratepayers in each of 35 school divisions would be treated equally. The provincial government would collect the taxes and then fund 100 per cent of what it costs to run the public school system, rather than the 56 per cent it funds now.

Second, gradually reduce the tax rate and increase funding from general revenues until the province could fund schools entirely from general revenues.

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