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Education Minister Brian Smith |. The provineial government may not

can forget about. any plan he may °

have had to dismiss West Vancou-. .

rebellion by a few eccentric fat cats

on Martini Mountain. The govern-
ment’s ridiculously. unfair education
financing formula is about.to land_

him in. much bigger-trouble. ew
‘Mr. Smith ‘is now in the soup with’
the property owners of Vancouver ag -
well, as he will soon hear. He and the
city’s six representatives in the Social
Credit government are going to start

will be yelling blue murder when they.
ment wants them not only to pay.thé

. ver’s school. tax revolt as-a crackpot’ -

Have been able to foresee the extent to
whieh. inflation, housing shortages,
and. rampant property speculation

’ -would distort:the tax-sharing formu--

Betting an earful, and so they should.. a
» Like their counterparts ‘in West’.
Vancouver; Vancouver taxpayers. -

‘discover that the provincial govern::~..

entiré cost of basic education in the:.

Vancouver school. district this year,

but to contribute another $11. millior.. :

to education costs for their country .
cousins — many of whom
schooltaxesatall. =} oc...

Property owners in all urban-areas, .

in fact, are about to get stiffed again ..

to. subsidize public education in rural
areas,.while.the share of costs paid-
from general provincial revenues
shrinks yetfurther, ©" ©‘

_ Taxes in most urban areas will
. Jump. again not because of increased
_ability to _pay, but because the finane-:
ing formula is based on property.

enrolments, actual school. costs, or :

will pay.no .,

la, but its: response tothe situation

-has been Scandalously inadequate.

~Last-year the average Vancouver

- homeowner. was: socked with.a-net in-

crease of 133 per cent in school.taxes.
This. year, according to. preliminary

figures, he will be asked for an extra
28 per cent —- despite a nine per cent

reduction in the proportion of his as-
sessmént to which school taxes will
be applied. Business and industrial
taxpayers in the city will be socked

even harder. « .-:

A year ago Mr. Smith promised an
equitable finance formula for 1982.
But the formula remains the same as
before. All the government has done
is introduce a patchwork amendment
that allows it to vary assessment
levels from district to district accord-
ing to cabinet whim, thus opening up
a brand new can of potential inequi-
ties. = oe, so .

: While the ‘financing. formula has

been burning urban-tax dollars to |

“warm rural schools, the education

minister has been fiddling with such
educational frippery .as a consumer
course for teenagers. You can bet the
course won’t teach the youngsters
about discriminatory taxation, or the
manipulation of public funds for po-
litical purposes. *: . mo,