Councillors for the rural municipality of Weyburn learned the cost of endorsing a resolution of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) at their regular monthly meeting on May 4.

RM administrator Kim McIvor told the council the cost of a six per cent discount on taxes and late tax payments would cost almost $53,000, about $16,000 more than the RM estimated in its 2004 annual budget.

A majority of delegates to a special SARM convention in Regina on April 22 voted to ask all RMs in the province to grant a six per cent discount on property taxes and impose no penalties until April on unpaid taxes.

The move was intended to encourage school divisions to pressure the Saskatchewan government to increase its share of the cost of education.

Currently, the education portion of the property tax pays for as much as 70 per cent of K-12 education and in some divisions, like South Central School Division, for 100 per cent of the cost.

SARM wants the province to pick up 60-70 per cent of the cost of education to lighten the education tax burden on farmers, which has increased by more than 20 per cent over the past five years.

Weyburn councillors voted to delay a decision on supporting for the SARM resolution until their June meeting.

Reeve Carmen Sterling also suggested the cost of school division administration is a contributing factor to the unhappiness over education taxes.

"No one would argue about paying education tax if it was fair and it was going to education (but) it gets administered to death before it gets to the schools," she told councillors.

"Then the home and school associations (have to) fund-raise from the same people," especially for outdoor play equipment, she said.

Councillors have not decided if they will attend a SARM rally at the legislature on Thursday, June 10 but they are distributing copies of a petition asking for a rebate for the 2004 rural property tax and a 70 per cent government share of education costs by 2009.

Sterling said council will make its decision on the SARM resolution based on the views of ratepayers as indicated by the petition.

Council also learned that a pre-feasibility study conducted by SEREDA on the viability of a sunflower processing plant here showed that breaking into the market would be very difficult given the competition from international giants, Cargill and Archer Daniel Midland (ADM).