Mayor Brian Bowman says it's time education taxes are removed from city property tax bills, citing that it's confusing for some homeowners.
"I completely understand why folks would get a tax bill and just presume that this is a tax bill from the City of Winnipeg as a whole," said Bowman
Right now municipalities collect and remit the school taxes on behalf of school boards and the province. Bowman says he wants that practice to end.
The province is in the middle of an education review and the mayor wants the funding framework to be part of the study. If not, in one year's time, Bowman says he’ll vote to stop collecting the school taxes and urge councillors to follow suit.
"I'm indicating what I'll be doing next year, if this is before me I'll be voting against it," said Bowman
The end of school tax collection could actually cost Winnipeg taxpayers more. Manitoba law says the city can be charged interest if school taxes aren't paid on time.
In a statement Manitoba Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen had this stern warning for Bowman: "The law is clear. Under the Public Schools Act, municipalities must collect the special levy. If the City of Winnipeg does not collect the special levy, it would be in violation of the law. With an ongoing independent Kindergarten to grade 12 education system review, the Province has no intention of changing the law at this time. It would be in the interest of the city to follow the law."
West End homeowner Bruce Clayton says when his annual property tax bill comes it's about $2,400 in total.
"Property taxes are about $1,200 hundred and the school taxes are about the same amount again," said Clayton.
Clayton says he knows school taxes make up part of his bill, but he's not sure everyone is educated on that point.
"It's possible they do not, if they're not completely paying attention to what's going on because as I say I didn't know that until I owned a house," he said.
Clayton says if the tax bills came out separately people could see clearly what school boards are charging for education. But just like in the classroom, rules are rules.
"Well that's it, you’re stuck with that because that's the way the law got written up," said Clayton.
