Weyburn city council will be adding its voice of concern to the chorus rising from urban municipalities in protest to a shift of property taxes from rural taxpayers.

According to new property tax assessment rules announced by the provincial government last week, Saskatchewan farmers will pay tax based on 55 per cent of the assessed value of their cultivated land instead of 70 per cent.

Under the reassessment, taxes on cultivated land would have increased by an estimated $22.5 million; under this plan that increase will be reduced by $15 million, leaving farmers with a $7.5 million increase.

The issue for urban municipalities is that loss of $15 million in the 2001 reassessment - an amount urban taxpayers are likely going to have to pick up, said Mayor Don Schlosser on Monday night.

"That $15 million has to come from somewhere for the schools. Unless the province is going to pick up that amount, it's the urbans who are going to pay it. I just can't see how they can expect us to take more of the school portion," said Mayor Schlosser.

A meeting of Saskatchewan city mayors and administrators will be held on Thursday, and this topic is likely to be at the top of the list, said the mayor.

Coun. Ray Hamm added his concern that this is skewing how property values are going to be reassessed in 2001 by SAMA, the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency.

"The whole reason for reassessment began with assessing a fair market value. This will undo all that reassessment work for nothing," said Coun. Hamm, asking if council should pass a resolution to express their displeasure.

Mayor Schlosser suggested council should wait until after the mayors' meeting, out of which will come further information about the reassessment.

Under the province's new rules, 70 per cent of the assessed value will apply to residential land and improvements, while commercial and industrial land will be assessed at 100 per cent of its value.

In a release from the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, president Mike Badham criticized the province for setting these new percentages of land values.

"SUMA has warned the province that the farm income crisis cannot be fixed by fiddling with property assessments. This just further shifts the problem to residential and commercial property owners in cities, towns and villages," said Badham.

"The only real solution is to get the province to again pay a larger share of school expenditures," he added.

City council received a reply to their letter from Sept. 25 outlining concerns about the operation of the Weyburn courthouse.

John Nilson, acting minister of justice, pointed out that Judge Claude Fafard still holds the appointment as Weyburn's resident judge, and is currently on an extended medical leave.

"When a resident judge is on medical leave, the practice is to replace that judge with either a temporary judge, or a judge from another provincial court centre. In the case of Weyburn, it is my understanding the Honourable J.B.J. Nutting, Chief Judge of the Provincial Court of Saskatchewan, has determined that the Weyburn provincial court circuit will be handled out of Moose Jaw," said Nilson in his reply.

The letter to the minister, initiated by the Police Commission and signed by Mayor Schlosser, also pointed out concerns with a lack of continuity of judges, with four different judges sitting over a four-week period in September, plus some concerns over some of the sentences which have been handed down recently.

Nilson said as a provincial minister he cannot interfere with decisions made by the judiciary or how judges conduct themselves. As for the change in judges, he said this was due to vacation leave schedules and the scheduling of judges for the court.

"You can expect to see some continuity of judicial resources assigned to the court from now on," said Nilson.

Concerns were expressed by councillors over how long Judge Fafard's medical leave would be, and Mayor Schlosser suggested sending the letter to the Police Commission for a further look before responding. He said his understanding is that Judge Fafard would not be returning to the bench in Weyburn.

The Southeast Regional Library will be passing on a hike of 75 cents per capita to all member municipalities, according to their proposed budget for 2001.

Coun. Debra Button, council's representative to both the regional and public library boards, said the regional board was faced with the choice of either raising the per capita request or closing four smaller branches, and the majority of the board opted for the increase.

After questioning by Mayor Schlosser, Coun. Button admitted this decision was not unanimous, and a lot of discussion was generated before the vote was taken. For the City of Weyburn, this increase will amount to over $7,000, with the requisition totalling $17.66 per capita, using 1996 census figures.

Of the 75-cent increase, 15 cents will go to offset an increase in the employees' pension plan, while the rest will cover the cost of sustaining the computer technology now available at all regional library branches, explained Coun. Button.

Computers linking all of the branches to the Internet were bought largely with federal government grants, she said. "Now they're leaving the libraries hanging. Some of the smaller branches are holding teas to help raise funds for it."

Coun. Button also reported that the Southeast Regional Library's policy governing the use of the Internet computers will be posted throughout the district, to try and address concerns over what some people have been looking at on the Web.

The letters were drawn up by the regional library's computer use task force, following complaints about how some computers were being used.

City councillors took exception to how Weyburn was characterized by the new mayor of Estevan in the Estevan Mercury recently.

Pointing to a quote from the mayor calling Weyburn a "sleepy little community," Coun. Bill Rudachyk said Weyburn isn't a whole lot smaller than Estevan, and is "a hell of a lot better place to live."

The quote also said Estevan's public works department was a lot busier than their counterparts in Weyburn.

"When you do something right the first time, you don't have to go around three times to do it again," commented Coun. Button, adding she will be back in Estevan in May to make sure Weyburn again claims the Golden Garbage Can award for the cleanest city.