Last winter's whisper of a municipal tax revolt in the rural municipalities around Weyburn is closer to becoming a reality this week.

Two rural municipalities in this area are ready to use their local school boards to help lever changes to the education tax system, while another has just voted to withhold from local boards the education tax it will collect this year.

The RM of Scott voted last week to withhold from local school divisions the entire $1.2 million it collects annually in education tax this year. The RM voted to place the tax revenue in a special bank account until the province lifts most or all of the education tax from agricultural land.

And, tomorrow, the RM of Weyburn will ask all 297 RMs in the province at a special meeting of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) to shift responsibility for collecting this year's education tax and, all arrears, to local school boards.

At the same meeting, the RM of Griffin will recommend the province reinstate a 25 per cent tax rebate for farmers for the 2004 tax year and reduce the education tax burden by 40 per cent in time for subsequent assessments.

The Griffin resolution will be put to a vote along with the Weyburn RM's resolution.

About 60 per cent of the cost of funding K-12 in Saskatchewan comes from property tax but many RMs want that percentage reduced at least to 40 per cent, with the larger share coming out of provincial revenues.

Weyburn RM's new reeve, Carmen Stirling, said last week the RM's resolution would put additional pressure on the Calvert government through school boards if it's adopted.

School boards do not have a system in place to collect their own taxes. RMs are required by the Education Act, as are their urban counterparts, to collect education tax for school boards at the same time they collect property tax for municipal services. In some municipalities, the school tax portion is as large or larger than the municipal tax.

Weyburn RM's resolution leaves the option open to rural residents to pay their school taxes this year even if the government does not change the system for 2004, said Weyburn RM administrator Kim McIvor. The resolution was adopted at the RM's regular monthly meeting on April 13 with little debate.

McIvor said Thursday that councillors are aware they would be breaking the law by refusing to collect education taxes.

"They feel they need to do something to get the government's attention. If all RMs agree to do it, it would put the ball in the government's court," he said.

The finance director of South Central School Division said Thursday the board had not discussed the RM's proposal. Christine Mazenc said she could not comment on the RM's recommendation in advance of the SARM meeting.

The executive director of legislation and school administration for Saskatchewan Learning said Monday the Education Act provides a legal remedy to school divisions if municipalities refuse to provide or collect education taxes. It would be considered a debt owed to the school divisions, said Michael Littlewood.

School boards can take the municipalities to court to collect the taxes owed, said Littlewood.

"It would be up to the school boards to determine if they would use that remedy," he said. The Learning department will be interested to see what comes out of the SARM convention, he said.

Tomorrow's special SARM meeting in Regina was called after the March provincial budget failed to remove the education tax from farm property, after two years of promises from the premier to make a change.

Agricultural incomes are at the lowest level on record and the province has left SARM with no option but to proceed, said SARM president Neal Hardy after the budget was tabled. SARM passed its first resolution for education tax relief in 1964.

The SARM meeting will decide "what action the municipalities will collectively take to impress upon the government that immediate change is needed to this unfair tax," he said.

An investigation into education financing, released in January, said the public is most concerned about the dramatic increase in the education portion of property tax levels, although it is concerned about overall tax levels, too.

"Many boards of education acknowledge that their ratepayers are taxed to the limit," said the final report of the Boughen commission on education financing.

The report said some boards fear a tax revolt if they raise mill rates again.

"Several rural municipalities told us they feel unable to raise their mill rate due to rising property tax levels and the impact a further increase would have on local farm families. As a result, some RMs have delayed maintenance of infrastructure and replacement of equipment," the report said.

The report found that, on a per capita basis, Saskatchewan had higher provincial and local property taxes in 2001 than all provinces except Ontario.

Agricultural properties saw a 20 per cent education tax hike in 1997 and another 15 per cent in 2001, noted the report.

It quoted figures from the province's Agriculture department showing that Saskatchewan farmers paid 4.2 per cent of their gross operating expenses in property tax in 2002. That compared to 1.6 per cent for Alberta farmers and 2.1 per cent for Manitoba farmers.