The Campbell government has pocketed property taxes raised for school purposes. Since it came to power, it has increased property taxes for school purposes by twice as much as it has increased funding for K-12 public schools.

Just because an increasing number of British Columbians can see through the Campbell government, doesn't mean that the government is "transparent". Misleading news releases and hiding information is routine practice in the New Era. In July 2001 the new government's "fiscal update" followed past practice and reported on property taxes broken down by residential for school purpose, business for school purpose and rural. Since then, Finance Minister Gary Collins' budgets have totaled the three categories and offered no breakdown, although the Ministry of Revenue's school tax website provided figures for 2002. Property taxes raised by the provincial government increased from $1.452 billion in fiscal year 2001-02 to an estimated $1.655 billion in fiscal year 2004-05; that's an increase of $203 million. The government's plan is to increase property taxes to $1.782 billion in fiscal 2006-07.

The Ministry of Revenue's website says "Historically, property taxes have funded approximately 30 per cent of public education costs, based on rates set by the provincial government …" Recent data (service plan data for fiscal years 2001-02, and 2002-03) show that 32.8% of operating expenditures for public schools was raised by property taxes for school purposes.

It is not easy to track data on government spending for K-12 education. Every fall the government issues news releases that talk about declining enrollment and increases in per student funding. It is only later in the year that the hard numbers become available and show the inaccuracy of the propaganda in the news releases (official enrollment counts are done at the end of September and released in December). When dealing with school funding it is also possible to become confused over calendar year, school year and fiscal year. The provincial government records spending on the basis of its fiscal year, which starts on April 1st and ends on March 31st, hence fiscal years are hyphenated, e.g. 2004-05. Data from the "service plans" for the Ministry of education reveal what has happened to operating expenditures for public schools (debt service and amortization is in addition to the operating expenditures). For fiscal year 2001-02, public school operating expenditures totaled $4.094 billion; for fiscal year 2002-03 they totaled $4.088 billion; for fiscal year 2003-04 they totaled $4.075 billion. The budget for fiscal year 2004-05 calls for public school operating expenditures to total $4.147 billion although, approximately $35 million of that is to cover the cost of changing to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. In other words, operating expenditures for public schools decreased by $5.7 million in 2002-03, and decreased a further $13.4 million in 2003-04. They increased in the budget for 2004-05 by $72.2 million; over a third of that increase is for accounting changes. (The inclusion of private school funding changes the cut in 2002-03 to $1.3 million, the cut in 2003-04 to $2.9 million and the increase in 2004-05 to $81.6 million.)

To make matters more confusing, the Ministry of Education has a second set of numbers for operating funding that is about $300 million less than the figures for operating expenditures shown in its service plans. A table in the January 31, 2004, funding announcement says that operating funding for public schools was $3.72 billion in 2000-01, $3.77 billion in 2001-02, $3.79 billion in 2002-03, $3.79 billion in 2003-04, and is projected to be $3.875 billion in 2004-05. While there is no explanation for the two sets of operating costs, the increase in the lower numbers between 2001-02 and 2004-05 is $105 million compared to a difference of $53 million in the figures from the service plans. The Ministry will have to explain the difference between its news release and its service plans, but either way, school funding has not increased by as much as the increases in the property tax for school purposes.

During the two fiscal years when operating expenditures for public schools decreased, according to the service plan figures, property taxes raised by the provincial government increased by $33 million in 2002-03, by $90 million in 2003-04, and by an estimated $71 million in 2004-05. All of the property taxes are not for school purposes, and the province no longer publishes the breakdown. A request to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Revenue for the breakdown is yet to be answered, but historically just over 91% of the property tax raised by the province was for school purposes (just under 10% is for rural areas for non-school purposes). Applying the 91% shows that the province raised an additional $30 million from property taxes for school purposes in 2002-03 when it cut funding by $5.7 million; it raised an additional $82 million in property taxes for school purposes 2003-04 when it cut funding by $13.4 million; it estimates that it will raise an additional $65 million from property taxes for school purposes this year when public school operating expenditures for things other than accounting changes will increase by $50 million.

The Campbell government is taxing for school purposes but instead of using the money for funding schools, it is using it to cover the revenue shortfall created by its tax giveaways to high income earners and corporations. The most generous interpretation is that the Campbell government is shifting more of the cost of education onto property taxes, but they haven't been sufficiently transparent to say anything about the shift. How shifty!