Wall Government to School Boards: No Responsible Budgeting In Our Province

Sean Shaw points out that the Wall government hasn't only handled the province's finances recklessly, it's also apparently gone out of its way to discourage long-term planning at the school board level:

Many School Boards have, in the past, put away a portion of their tax revenue into Reserve accounts – some carrying balances of millions to upwards of $15 million.

Apparently, funding allocations to these school boards will be structured in such a way that those reserves must first be spent before the Province directs additional funding to each board. If true, this new policy removes the ability of School Boards to maintain reserve accounts (I’m not sure if this includes reserves earmarked for building maintenance, etc..) and puts their year-to-year budgeting at the mercy of the Provincial Government.

Of course, there was never much secret that school boards were going to going to be almost entirely dependent on the province due to the Sask Party's decision to strip school boards of the power to set mill rates. But it takes an extra dash of gall for the province to also dictate that any school board which was careful enough to cultivate a reserve fund will have that effort nullified as a condition of receiving provincial funding. And the demand looks particularly unreasonable at a time when the Wall government is in the process of shredding its previous promises due to its inability to budget.