Property tax measure fundraising dwarfed by that of opponents

BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – Rick Becker, the driver of the statewide measure to essentially abolish property taxes, said he sees the fundraising efforts of the “vote yes” and “vote no” camps as a classic David-and-Goliath matchup.

Supporters of Measure 4 have raised just over $105,000 for a group called End The Unfair Property Tax. The coalition opposed to Measure 4, Keep It Local, has raised more than $1.8 million, according to campaign finance reports available as of early Friday afternoon.

Becker described the donors supporting Measure 4 as “regular North Dakota folks.”

Education-related groups have made the largest donations in the effort to defeat the property tax reform measure that will go to a statewide vote on Nov. 5.

The top donations are $404,000 from the National Education Association and $300,000 from the American Federation of Teachers.

Surprise surprise.

North Dakota isn't alone.

Here in Florida, Hillsborough County's 851,299 registered voters are being asked to grant the county's 15,160 public school teachers a $6,000 annual pay hike for the next four years, over the teachers' current average annual pay of $69,000. And to do it on the backs of the 445,000 county homeowners who'll be the only ones paying for this massive left-wing income redistribution scheme, from largely Republican homeowners to almost entirely Democrat Party-registered teachers.

In the last election, in 2022, Florida's Hillsborough County voters gave all public school teachers, through another "ballot initiative", status as "first responders", by adding the teachers to fire and police personnel and granting them a special "homestead tax exemption". Which reduced significantly the county property taxes levied against their homes.

But this just wasn't good enough for the Florida Education Association, and the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association, the two public-employee labor unions representing the 15,160 public school teachers in Hillsborough.

This latest pay hike referendum, which the unions rammed through the county school board, and which is being billed as "for the students", will cost all 445,000 Hillsborough County homeowners over $120 million per year for the next four years.

This at a time when student test scores measuring minimal performance standards in reading and in math are being met by only 40-45% of Hillsborough's 257,000 students, leaving almost 60% of them without the skills needed to function as literate adults.

I don’t think you understand. For smart buyers (No HOA BS) in California, the property taxes are very low at 1.025%. and they can’t be raised more than 2% per year no matter how much your home appreciates! This is thanks to Howard Jarvis. I took him 15 years to get Proposition 13 it on the ballot in the 1970s and it passed.

However, when one sells their home in California, the selling price determines what the new taxes will be at 1.025% of the sales price.

> People voting is the way to handle this as they have a stake in the result.<

I’ll have to disagree with you on this. People who rent THINK they have no skin in this game and are more apt to vote for a tax increase.

Just once I would like to see a ballot measure for a tax increase that only applies to renters. It would be a great educational tool.

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