$2.7 Million For School Boards

Nova Scotia students will have more textbooks and their schools will get more repairs thanks to an additional $2.7 million from property assessments this year.

The money results from higher than expected property values.

"Providing a quality education to our students is a responsibility we share with school boards, teachers, parents and municipalities," Education Minister Jamie Muir said today, June 3. "Every cent of this extra money from property assessments is going directly to school boards to help them manage difficult cost pressures. It will mean new text books for students and more maintenance and repairs for schools."

The minister said it was a challenging budget year for education. This resulted in some difficult reductions to school boards in important areas, including text books and school maintenance.

"The increased funding from property assessments will alleviate many of the cost pressures school boards originally were facing, putting them in a better position to support their students," said Mr. Muir.

The mandatory municipal education tax is paid by property owners each year according to the total value of property assessments in the province.

The 2004-05 rate of $0.3510 per $100 has been unchanged since 2002 but, this year, property assessments were higher than the budget estimates. Consequently, even though the rate was unchanged, the municipal education tax generated $2.7 million more than estimated.

Last year, the assessment was lower than budgeted. This meant that the province had to contribute more to make up the shortfall.

The distribution of funding to school boards is as follows:

• Annapolis Valley Regional School Board: increase $298,400

• Cape Breton - Victoria Regional School Board: increase $374,700

• Chignecto-Central Regional School Board: increase: $456,500

• Conseil scolaire acadien provincial: increase $74,400

• Halifax Regional School Board: increase $974,600

• Southwest Regional School Board: increase: $327,900

• Strait Regional School Board: increase: $191,600

School boards will benefit from $150,089,600 through property assessments and $790,775,600 from the province resulting in a total of $940,865,200 for 2004-05.