Progressive Conservative leader Brian Pallister announced Sept. 3 that, if re-elected, his party promises to begin phasing out the education portion of property taxes over 10 years, once the budget is balanced, which the PCs say will occur in 2022.
“Manitoba has one of the most complicated and uneven property tax regimes in the country,” Pallister said in a press release. “With a re-elected PC government, education property taxes will be phased out – saving homeowners thousands of dollars each year on their property taxes when fully implemented.”
In Thompson this year, the education portion of the property tax bill on a residential property assessed at $200,000 is about $1,670, though $700 of that is knocked off by the education property tax rebate.
The phase-out would begin the first year after the budget is balanced – 2023 based on current projections – and occur over a maximum of 10 years, meaning that they would be totally eliminated by 2033, midway through the third term following the next one, which will run until 2023. Pallister said education funding levels would be unaffected by the change and that they would come entirely from general revenues once the phase-out was complete.
“We will bring the budget to balance two years earlier than promised, freeing up additional dollars to reinvest in the priorities of Manitobans – priorities like health care, education, infrastructure and lower taxes,” said the PC leader. “We are building a better Manitoba by laying a strong foundation that allows us to reduce taxes and make life more affordable.”
