WSD and Budget Time!

By: Dave Najduch, President

Education funding can be a very dry and difficult topic at the very best of times. It is nothing we (WTA) have any control over and yet it has the ability to profoundly impact what occurs in schools with our students.

In most years around this time, the Province makes its education funding announcement. The WSD then calculates its portion of that amount and then talks would begin between the division and the province regarding additional funding through the Tax Incentive Grant (TIG). The TIG would be given to the school division if it froze the local school tax rate at the previous year’s level.

The WSD choose to take the TIG funds three of the last four school budget years. The impact of the TIG and the Education Property Tax Credit has been significant in the WSD. The actual money being paid in school taxes has fallen consistently since 2005. The average rate payer today is paying $287 less in school taxes than they did in 2005 (based on an average accessed home valued at $ 131,786).

This year the government is providing a 2.2% increase for education funding across the province. This amount varies widely from division to division and is based on a very complex set of calculations. In the end, on an approximately $341 million budget, the WSD will receive only a few thousand dollars more than it received last year which means it is obtaining virtually none of the 2.2% increase in funding. To compound this year’s funding problem, the provincial government is no longer going to provide additional TIG money.

The WSD is currently talking about an 8.0%-8.5% school tax increase to maintain the same level of services and programming as last year. Built into this amount will also be the need to provide funds to maintain aging schools and to enhance a technological system in need of repair. If the WSD chooses not to increase the tax rate by this amount it will then need to reduce programming and maintenance across the system to find the savings; this at the same time the WSD has seen an increase in enrollment of almost 1000 students.

The Association’s position on the funding issue is clear, the WSD needs to increase the tax rate to maintain all of the services and programs it currently delivers. Taking the TIG over the last few years has meant the tax rate in the WSD has been kept artificially low. The system does not have much, if any, budget flex left after years of tax freezes.

The discussions around the budget and a tax increase will be taking placed over the next few weeks. The WSD Budget meeting is Feb 27, 2012 and the budget and tax increase must be finalized by the middle of March.