The Challenge of Using Tax Revenues Effectively

Taxation, at any level, seems to be a quagmire for many people. How is revenue generated, what influences where money is spent, why does there always seem to be less revenue to pay for needed services when taxes always appear to be on the increase? Each level of government derives its income from unique sources. Ottawa relies primarily on corporate and individual taxes, as well as GST/HST. The province relies on sales tax, individual tax and transfers from Ottawa. Municipal authorities generate money through property tax and some licensing fees, as well as support from the province and, for specific projects, from Ottawa. School divisions levy a school tax tied to property taxation, and receive funding and support from the province.

Then there is the equally convoluted approach to who is responsible for what. Ottawa funds health care with the provinces, but the provinces are responsible for delivery. Yet, Ottawa exercises control over what is delivered. The municipalities are responsible for water management, roads and so on, yet the province exercises control in many of those areas, as well as through the Municipal Act. The school divisions are responsible for the delivery of programs and the running of the schools, but the province sets most of the curriculum and decides where schools will be built and funded. This intricately intertwined system of inputs and outputs leads to a great deal of confusion as to where responsibility (and blame) should be placed for high tax and poor service.

In the rural areas, there is a more uniform system of funding for school divisions, since school divisions cross over several municipalities, and each municipality may rely on varied levels of business versus residential property revenues. In Winnipeg, it is the reverse, with the city relying on business and residential property taxes across the entire area, with several school divisions being embedded within that boundary. Divisions like Seven Oaks have a much lower business tax base than others, resulting in a heavier burden on the homeowner. This is part of the inequitable funding that our school division faces.

The second component of this imbalanced funding approach for our ratepayers is the way the province determines how much money will be allocated to each school division. In the past decade, our division has pursued, aggressively, a more fair and equitable distribution of funds from the province. We still have a long way to go.

However, because we know that we are being confronted with two hurdles to overcome, as we struggle to make sure that our taxpayers are not overwhelmed by the cost of education, we have been quite successful at making our tax revenues work more effectively for you than have other divisions. In fact, Seven Oaks spends, on average, approximately $1,000 ($996.00) less per student than the average of other divisions in the province, yet is recognized as one of the leaders in innovative programming. That is something of which all of us in the region should be proud. Along with that point of pride is a second one: our graduation rates have been increasing, year after year, rising to 90% last year. To provide a comparison, some states in the USA have graduation rates below 65%.

In a prior blog, I discussed our innovative programming that addresses the individual skills, interests and weaknesses of each student.  These programs, and the support services that we offer to our youth allow individuals to excel. With the very diverse socio-economic and cultural milieu in our division, we face additional challenges that are not experienced by many other school divisions.  This eclectic mix, though, also is a great benefit to us and our young people, exposing us to a variety of points of view, backgrounds, abilities  and potential. Our diversity helps us to devise more creative and effective solutions to the issues we face, with a lower tax base with which to fund those solutions.

Yet, the real skill in delivering quality education programs for our children has less to do with the various levels of government than it does with the people who surround us. Seven Oaks would be justified in bragging about the high quality of educators and administrative staff who keep our system running smoothly. While it is true that the hiring of our teachers and school support staff is the ultimate responsibility of the school board, it is the dedication of those staff members that guarantees that the programs that the trustees approve are delivered in a professional manner. Our administrative and operations personnel, led by our division superintendent, largely should be given the credit for the ongoing value that each of us receive for the tax dollars spent.

Finally, one of the motivators that drives each of the elected public servants to  do the best job possible at investing tax dollars in good education is the fact that each trustee is also a ratepayer in the division, and any taxes imposed affect that trustee in precisely the same manner as every other ratepayer. Unlike upper levels of government, every trustee, therefore, is personally invested in making sure that his or her community is getting the best “bang for the buck” in use of tax money.

While we can make excuses or give legitimate reasons for why Seven Oaks is facing greater challenges than other school divisions, we, as trustees, have chosen to act more responsibly. Yes, budgeting is difficult.  However, those difficulties force us to work harder at finding better solutions, and, as a result, we ratepayers in Seven Oaks can be proud that we live in one of the most respected school divisions in the province, and deliver some of the best programming for our youth. Taxation is challenging. However, the rewards, for us, lay in being able to deliver value for each and every dollar spent.