The North Dakota State Legislature’s Tax Relief Advisory Committee has been meeting to discuss the issue of increasing property taxes as supporters of the “End Unfair Property Tax” initiative attempt to gain the required signatures to place the measure on the General Election ballot in November.
NORTH DAKOTA (KXNET) — The North Dakota State Legislature’s Tax Relief Advisory Committee has been meeting to discuss the issue of increasing property taxes as supporters of the “End Unfair Property Tax” initiative attempt to gain the required signatures to place the measure on the General Election ballot in November.
State lawmakers are currently considering several options for how the state could bring property tax relief without eliminating the tax altogether.
The latest Tax Relief Advisory Committee hearing was held on Thursday, June 20 at the state capitol, to consider different ideas on how to lower property taxes, most of which are collected by county governments.
Aaron Birst, Executive Director of the North Dakota Association of Counties (NDACo), spoke to the committee at the meeting and said that most of the organization’s membership is opposed to completely eliminating property taxes.
He told lawmakers that the bulk of property tax collected, funds school districts, and city and county services, while the majority of county expenditures go to pay for maintaining roads and public infrastructure as well as public safety, which includes law enforcement.
Instead of eliminating property taxes altogether, Birst suggested that state legislators may want to consider looking at providing some kind of property tax relief for homeowners.
“I’m not hearing a ton of folks complain on the commercial side, and maybe not even as much on the ag side. Where I hear the most of the complaints is on the residential side,” Birst told the committee. “I think if you’re going to focus on something, that would probably be the easiest way to do it, and probably keep targeting the residential systems already set up. We could easily change that without too much.”
Birst also cautioned the committee from approving a “one size fits all approach” in capping property taxes at the same level for all counties.
He said that not all counties are equal, but rather diverse in their growth, budgets, and land valuations, which he added are all factors that each county uses in determining their property tax rates.