Will North Dakota be the first state to end property taxes?

Post Bulletin ^ | 6/11/12 | Josh Goodman

[Libloather]

Will North Dakota be the first state to end property taxes?
By Josh Goodman
Associated Press
Posted: Jun 11, 2012, 10:29 am

WASHINGTON — North Dakota voters on Tuesday will decide the fate of a ballot initiative that would make the state the first in the country to end property taxes.

If any state is going to take such a dramatic step, North Dakota would seem to be a likely candidate. North Dakota is generally a conservative state, and fiscal conservatives generally support lower taxes. The state is also experiencing a surge in tax revenue unrivaled elsewhere. The property tax is often described as the least popular of the taxes that fund state and local government.

Yet even those ingredients don’t appear as though they will be enough. The reason why is that, regardless of what interest or what party they represent, the powers-that-be in North Dakota have a preference for caution. That same preference exists in other states, which is why the most sweeping ballot measures to change or limit government have tended to fail lately.

Supporting the end of the property tax are a small group of amateur activists led by Charlene Nelson, a stay-at-home mom from Harmony Township in Casselton, North Dakota who homeschools her three boys. Nelson says she’s put 13,000 miles on her car since February traveling the state in support of Measure 2. Her husband just changed the oil for the fourth time.

[TexasFreeper2009]

also one of the main reasons for the property tax is to keep the extremely wealthy from buying up all the land and making everyone rent from them.

[scbison]

The won’t repeal property tax. The rural fire and police departments are worried about losing control and have led the effort to vote it down..

[xzins]

A continuing taxation of property is anti-ownership. In fact, one could argue that one can never truly own property when it is taxed at continuing intervals.

Tax it on purchase as a sales tax. I would understand that. Afterwards, though, it is the property of whomever has purchased it.

[familyop]

"And with the 1st REAL HARD COLD winter watch them stampede right back out! Lived there most of my life . . . it takes a strong will and a hardscrabble attitude to stay where it can go weeks without getting even above Zero."

I live in a place with temperatures down to -30 F and 100 mph + winter winds. North Dakota would be easy. Temp here in the teens last night (high elevation on the Rockies).

It will be good to watch the socialist political regulators fall from their government support like flies and slide back to the cities. IMO, they should be sent back to Europe, where their very recent ancestors came from. One (an unemployed elementary school teacher from New Jersey) shot the back window out of my vehicle, as I drove slowly past her house on May Day. She was apparently foreclosed on and moved out during the past few days.

Have fun. Enjoy the economic slide. I know that I will. Starve the B. right out of politics.

[Puckster]

Time to buy property there.

I grew up there in Bismarck til the 9th grade.

[ansel12]

I know this is a real challenge, but it must be done.

Paying eternal rent into perpetuity for your home, to never be able to own it, is too fundamentally wrong to not have to eliminate it.

[fr_freak]

also one of the main reasons for the property tax is to keep the extremely wealthy from buying up all the land and making everyone rent from them.

Instead, the government effectively owns all of the land and everyone pays rent to them.

[TexasFreeper2009]

yep, and that bites almost as bad. But at least it tamps down on the envy of the rich.

[Eska]

We don't have prop taxes in rural Alaska. School districts in rural areas spend about 30-40% less per pupil in education; usually on books, computers, and supplies.

Personally, I don't mind paying 2K/year if we see improvements in education. What I hate is how it quickly grows to 5K/year.

Many rural communities have become poverty centers as people move to areas with less taxation and then try to live off the land, no joke. That ends up meaning disability, welfare, and govt checks providing what income they have. Not always a good outcome though that may seem hard to imagine.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I’d reccomend the trees & lakes area of ND, when you look for real estate. (snort...

[Sarajevo]

Debra Medina had that as a platform in her run against Perry for the Governors seat in Texas. Everyone labeled her a kook.

[fr_freak]

yep, and that bites almost as bad. But at least it tamps down on the envy of the rich.

I don't know about that. The "Occupy" morons and leftists in general still manage to play on people's envy of the rich, even though, ironically, most rich people seem to be Democrat contributors. At least if the rich owned the land and made people pay rent, everyone could see the situation for what it is. Now, everyone accepts the government's right to tax the land without questioning how it is that the government thinks it owns everything.

[pepsionice]

I might think long on this issue. The state is missing around $850 million now, without the property tax. They will have to make that money up. This translates into huge sales tax or huge income tax....take your pick, but you lose in the end.

It would have been different if they had a huge pension burden from the state employees or state cops, but they didn’t. And cutting off the cost of running the state operation....probably isn’t that practical (North Dakota isn’t like California or Florida with massive overhead).

[sarasmom]

I'm curious about the mechanism they will use to pay for desirable local and county government services and employees?
It looks like North Dakota currently has the whole trifecta of property, sales and state income taxes.
I would think ditching the income tax would make more sence in the long run, but hey, it's their state, and they can do whatever they want!

Best of wishes for ND, either way they decide, from a Florida resident who will not be impacted in any way by their decision.

[SunkenCiv]

thanks Libloather, additional:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2894143/posts