North Dakota voters may end most property taxes. Government programs could face huge cuts
North Dakota voters may end most property taxes. Government programs could face huge cuts
North Dakota voters this fall could end the property tax by approving a ballot measure that opponents say would drastically slash a variety of state services.
Enjoy your moonscape roads, non existing police, fire, and emergency services, and closing schools.
Fucking idiots lol.
"Why don't our hospitals have doctors and nurses?"
Because they have options.
I'm fine with property tax, but it can't just go up every year on a %. It should be reasonable.
Oregon has awful property taxes that effectively price people out of their homes.
Boring suburban houses with $9000 annual taxes should not be a thing. Then the next year it goes up by 4%. Has to be a limit somewhere in the system.
In CA, Proposition 13 limits increases and you would think it would prevent drastic overall property tax increases and the tax revenue would be fairly stable. In reality the run up in prices after 2020 has been an absolute windfall for cities and has cost property owners big time. For example, LA's budgeted property tax revenue went up 14.6% from 2022 to 2024, an absurd increase far exceeding the general inflation level but something cities and counties have come to expect.
While I think property taxes (or some replacement) are absolutely necessary in a functioning society, in my experience they way they are implemented is ridiculous and the reason for this kind of initiative.
He said the Legislature could use earnings from the state’s $11 billion oil tax savings as well as millions of dollars he said go to “corporate welfare” for private corporations and special interest groups. The state also has better-than-forecasted revenues coming in, he said.
Becker has an argument here that I can't argue with.
I don't understand why it has to be all or nothing? It seems like they could reduce property taxes, see if the other funding sources can cover the difference, and measure how it impacts programs that were traditionally funded by these taxes. If they can prove it covers the difference with no impact, then think about reducing the tax rate further..
If they approach the change incrementally it would benefit everyone. If they instantly reduce the tax rate to 0% it most benefits the rich folks with expensive property.
There are some pros and obvious cons here. Property taxes are usually regressive (unless they had property tax brackets, which I've never heard of) so this could benefit lower incomes. They can also replace the property tax with something worse, like fixed fees, or not replace it at all. Property tax reform, rather than elimination, might've been better.
This doesn't benefit low income, low income can't afford to own property.
That's not inherently true in rural states where the property value math is a lot different. In remote areas, land can only be a few thousand dollars of purchase value, or be passed by family, thus still frequently be inhabited by the dirt poor who have few employment opportunities in said rural areas. I should know, I'm smack dab in the middle of one of said areas.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.
I don't know that he's absolutely right, but he's certainly situationally right.
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