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Monday, April 28, 2008

Grand Forks County’s Home Rule Charter Question Is a Blank Check On Our Account

By The Whistler on April 28, 2008 at 09:46 am
10 Comments

On June 10th there will be a crucial election in Grand Forks concerning Grand Forks County’s desire to attain more power through a home rule charter.  It’s my belief that we need to do everything we can to stop this from happening.  To my knowledge the county hasn’t implemented any spending cuts to make up for their jail fiasco.  Instead they want to stick that and more on the taxpayer.

Grand Forks County could be the most dysfunctional political entity in North Dakota.

The worst example of that is the jail that they built without taxapayer approval.  The County Commission said at the time that they needn’t bother the voters about it because according to them it wouldn’t cost the taxpayers a cent.  Well they were wrong, dead wrong.  They used made up numbers to project that.  When it came out how badly they had figured it they made the jail administrator a scapegoat and fired him.  I’m sure he was partly to blame but it’s the responsibility of the commission to investigate before they take action.

They’ve had other problems as well.  Last summer they tried to sneak a new tax on the voters with an unpublicized election with very few open voting sites.

Commission members also had a well publicized feud with the Sheriff in which they only managed to look silly.

To me, a taxpayer the biggest thing is that according to American’s for Prosperity’s report they’ve increased spending by 50%, inflation adjusted, since 1997.  During this time the population went down and services are not up.  I believe that 50% increase in spending is before they jacked up property taxes to pay for their jail fiasco.  Why don’t they roll back some of those spending increases to pay for the jail and other needs?

Clearly the county commission cannot be trusted with the power that they have, let alone more power.  According to Citizens for Responsible Government which is fighting this Home Rule power grab the county would gain a number of powers to get more money from the beleaguered taxpayers:

If this passes, here is a list of some of the taxes that could be imposed:

sales and use tax
gross receipt tax
motor vehicle fuels
special fuels tax
motor vehicle registration fees

There is also a provision where the state limit on property tax for counties could be voided, thereby creating a massive property tax increase. 

I don’t know who all is active in this group but Terry Bjerke, City Council Candidate is one of them.  If you want to help you can contact them at:

Citizens for Responsible Government
PO Box 12296
Grand Forks, ND 58208-2296

The Whistler is sending them $100, today.

In related news CT Marhula who is running for the County Commission had a letter to the Herald yesterday. CT’s a flaming Democrat, but he’s got this paleo-conservatives unreserved support in the coming election.  Go get ‘em CT!

You can see the actual Home Rule Charter up on the county’s website.  Also here’s a link to the last post I did on the subject.  I’ve got other links on the bottom of the page in case you want to catch up. 

I found it interesting that when I Googled “Grand Forks County Home Rule” the first two entries were posts that I’ve done on the subject.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Say Anything isn’t the best place to get information on this subject as we come up on the election. 

If you have any information about the issue

Comments

gilbyguy

GO C.T.!!!  Interesting that he’s the only candidate for County Commission that openly opposes the Charter. 

A disturbing trend is for candidates to say, “I support the idea of the home rule charter, but this may not be the right time.”

WTF? People, who stake out this position are saying that they want to raise your taxes, but don’t want to do it around election time.

Thanks for posting on this TW.  I love your new signature.

There are no warning signs on the road less traveled.

gilbyguy on April 28, 2008 at 11:26 am
The Whistler

Thanks Gilby, for the record I was there when Reagan received the Jersey. 

It was probably no coincidence that we presented the Jersey to him at the start of the season, and we won a championship at the end of the season. 

Too bad about Mark Andrews.

The Debate is over!  Global Whining has been confirmed.

The Whistler's signature
The Whistler on April 28, 2008 at 11:36 am
goon

The taxes on Grand Forks and Grand Forks County are out of hand and there are people that have the gall to say but we can afford more. Enough is enough… It is time to vote them all out of office. I can’t wait till the taxes are raised because they want a pool in river side to stay open or to pay for Gardniers mistakes at the county jail.

It is time for the populace to tell their elected leaders we are not paying anymore taxes and we would like to keep more of our money.

check out Goon’s World

http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/

Goon’s North Dakota Red Neck

http://redneckndgoon.blogspot.com/

goon on April 28, 2008 at 11:57 am
The Whistler

Goon, although it looks like the jail administer screwed up I don’t think we let the commission off of the hook. 

It was their responsibility to look into it.

The Debate is over!  Global Whining has been confirmed.

The Whistler's signature
The Whistler on April 28, 2008 at 11:59 am
goon

Yeah you’re right there as well. I think it is time to vote the county commisioner out of office as well…

We should start a movement. smile

check out Goon’s World

http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/

Goon’s North Dakota Red Neck

http://redneckndgoon.blogspot.com/

goon on April 28, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Avatar for Robert

You definitely do not want Home Rule charter.  Is it more efficient? Not when it will cost taxpayers more money, and more power in the few elect.  Bad omen.

Robert on April 28, 2008 at 01:06 pm
Kevin

Grand Forks County could be the most dysfunctional political entity in North Dakota.

The whole state government is dysfunctional. Most of it is populated by lazy, greedy slackers whose worst fear is having to earn a living in the private sector.

Kevin on April 28, 2008 at 06:04 pm
C. Y.

If this passes, here is a list of some of the taxes that could be imposed:

sales and use tax
gross receipt tax
motor vehicle fuels
special fuels tax
motor vehicle registration fees

There is also a provision where the state limit on property tax for counties could be voided, thereby creating a massive property tax increase.

Im not for this county commission to have any more power either but the above comment is slightly misleading since any mentioned increase will go to the vote of the people.

2. No ordinance or resolution may be adopted by the Board of County
Commissioners implementing any new or additional tax not currently being
levied or assessed, including but not limited to the sales and use tax,
gross receipts taxes, motor vehicle registration fees, motor vehicle
fuels and special fuels taxes, until referred by the Board of County
Commissioners for approval by the electorate at any primary, general or
special county election. 

3. Any ordinance or resolution submitted to the electorate must be approved
by a majority vote of the electors voting thereon.

Just my $.03

Insert signature here:

C. Y. on April 28, 2008 at 07:50 pm
The Whistler

That’s interesting.  I hadn’t studied the charter yet.

I wonder then why they are after the home rule charter.  According to CT’s letter he thinks it’s to set up for the sales tax, but then why don’t they go after both at the same time.

Anyway it seems that they certainly don’t deserve any additional power. 

I’m still waiting for them to prove that they’ve attempted to cut spending somewhere else before they raised sales taxes.

I understand from both comments by Tu Uyen Tran of the Herald and Americans for Prosperity that even if you have their financial documents you can’t figure a thing out from them.

The Debate is over!  Global Whining has been confirmed.

The Whistler's signature
The Whistler on April 28, 2008 at 07:56 pm
C. Y.

I believe they must have the charter in place before attempting the sales tax.

What most people don’t understand is the jail HAD to be replaced as I believe the state was ready to shut them down and that would have cost way more than the jail is costing now.  There will always be jail inmates and replacing the jail won’t be cheaper now or next year.  The commission clowns just totally screwed up they way they did it.  (unless they planned to do it this way figuring we wouldn’t notice)

(how can you be against something you haven’t read ? ? ? ?)

Insert signature here:

C. Y. on April 28, 2008 at 08:24 pm
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