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Saturday, May 17, 2008

North Dakota Farm Bureau Against Grand Forks County Home Rule Charter

By The Whistler on May 17, 2008 at 04:02 pm
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This June voters of Grand Forks County will be asked to approve an home rule charter giving the county more powers.  If you’ve been reading my past work on Grand Forks County you will know that I believe (and am willing to back it up) that they are a most dysfunctional organization.  Because of that I tend to not want to give them any more power.

Still the subject is a bit complicated.  Are their any benefits to the taxpayer?  The North Dakota Farm Bureau has weighed in:

“The proposed Grand Forks County Home Rule Charter just doesn’t measure up,” Grand Forks County Farm Bureau President Paul Galegher said. “If the voters of Grand Forks County adopt the proposed Home Rule Charter on the June ballot, it is very likely that the next step will be a county sales tax…

“We see a lot of problems with the proposed charter, specifically language that would give the county commissioners the ability to consolidate mill levies without a vote of the people,” Galegher said. “They would no longer need to fund the original intended use, and in many cases, these designated funds were approved by a vote of the people. Consolidating mill levies allows commissioners to supersede the will of the original taxpayers’ vote.”

Galegher said the proposed Home Rule Charter would grant the county commissioners authority to levy and collect new taxes, such as property taxes, sales and use taxes, gross receipt taxes, motor vehicle fuels and special fuels taxes, motor vehicle registration fees and more.

“We already pay federal and state gasoline taxes,” he said. “Why should we open the door to paying yet another gas tax — this time a county tax? Why is the ability to levy these taxes even in the charter at all? How many times to do we have to pay taxes on the same products and services? It’s time to stop these local taxes that just don’t measure up.”

I think that’s a very strong statement and a lot of great reasons to continue my opposition to the measure.  The Herald gave a proponent of Home Rule a chance to present the other side.

“They say it would be abused. The county has not levied to the maximum,” he said. “The County Commission has been very frugal in their dealings with property taxes .?.?. There’s no reason to fear this home rule.”

That’s a quote by Lloyd Omdahl, former Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota, contributing columnist for the Grand Forks Herald (I think he’s still active), retired UND professor and chaired the home rule committee for the county.  He’s a very prominent person and a strong supporter for the charter.

But really with all of those credentials can anyone take him serious.  He’s said that the county has been VERY frugal.  That’s absolutely wrong.  From 1997 to 2006 county property taxes nearly doubled at the same time the county actually lost population (that’s a 72% increases adjusting for inflation!).  That was before the jail fiasco when the county commission jacked up property taxes last year to cover their mistake.  By the way the (.?.?) in the quote was in the Herald article.  Maybe somebody there thought it was a remarkable statement as well.

The county is now in second place for property tax bills after the school.  They passed Grand Forks city last year. 

Clearly nobody can be taken seriously when they say that the county has been frugal with our property taxes.  They’ve been spending irresponsibly.  In fact every time I post on the county I challenge anyone to point out where the county has rolled back some recent spending increases in order to pay for part of the jail.  The voters need to tell the county commission to do everything they can to pay for their mistakes and quit acting like they have a blank check. 

Here’s some previous work I’ve done on the subject with links to go back to older works. 

Comments

goon

Good blog post Whistler and I am sick and tired of having my taxes raised every year to fund our city and county leaders can run their organization by the budget. So some Moron screws up the jail royally and we are going to pay for it. They should put Gardnier in that Jail.

Check out:
Goon’s North Dakota Red Neck
Goon’s World

goon on May 17, 2008 at 06:01 pm
C. Y.

How was the jail screwed royally?  It was a requirement by the state to replace it or close it.  I’ll admit they screwed up the financing method but it really wasn’t their choice as the “state” sets the jail rules and inspects them every year.

Also, the county provides services to “EVERYONE” living in the county and that includes even those within every city in the county and if the city of Grand Forks, grew in population, so did the county.  In fact , the majority of the services that Grand Forks county provides are called for in ND law and most of those services are generated within the city of Grand Forks.  The Sheriff serves all district court orders and handles ALL criminal warrants beyond a B-misdemeanor no matter who did the investigation.  Who do you think does the actual collecting, etc of taxes?  It all goes through the county records.  Do you register deeds anywhere in the city government?  In fact the only county department that does nothing within the city is the county highway department.

I think your numbers don’t mean much without the proper documentation.

C. Y.'s signature
C. Y. on May 17, 2008 at 09:01 pm
goon

When they were trying to get the new jail built Gardner claimed that the feds were going to pay 100+ dollars a day to house federal prisoners when infact that wasn’t true it was something like 70.00-75.00 bucks per day.

I am not against paying our fair share of taxes but enough is enough. Every year someone decides that we need to have another mill rate increase and there is no end in sight for increasing taxes. Next thing you know the city will want more money as well as the park board.

Check out:
Goon’s North Dakota Red Neck
Goon’s World

goon on May 17, 2008 at 09:21 pm
C. Y.

We lived in GF in a 1,034 sq ft house with a lot 33ft x 144 and by looking at the “County’s Webpage” the 2007 taxes were $2,171.35.

In 2000 we moved out of GF to a country house with 5 acres, brick house w/ 1,700 sq ft and 2007 taxes were $1,890.44.

SO almost double the house size and way more grass to mow and less taxes.  I would say I get way more value for my tax dollar in the ‘county’ than in the ‘city’.

I guess numbers can indicate a multiple of things.

And there isn’t stop sign 30 feet from my house with muffler-less motorcycles at 2am.  grin

C. Y.'s signature
C. Y. on May 18, 2008 at 06:10 am
Good Ol Boy

CY-
I had 12 acres in Pembina county and a house probably as nice as yours, and my taxes were under $500 a year. What’s your point? I still wouldn’t want to live there any more.
Whistler, Goon, and I hope a majority of GF county residents don’t want a home rule charter because for whatever reason we do not seem to be able to rally any capable people to run for county commisioner positions. To give them the power to simply tax us anytime and any amount to cover their mistakes is not acceptable. So we needed a jail- fine build one. But the premise this one was built under- big enough to take in federal prisoners to help pay- sounds like government as a growth industry, and who needs/ wants that? If this was a private jail (don’t get me started on that one), it would be a bust right now, wouldn’t it?

Good Ol Boy on May 18, 2008 at 06:31 am
The Whistler

CY, if you haven’t noticed city people pay both city and county taxes which make your comparison somewhat suspect.

I think you’re getting a better deal now for sure, but that’s not for everyone. 

So who do you think benefited by the 72% run up in property taxex from 1997 to 2006.

Regarding the jail, the information is there in the links.  The county commission said they didn’t need to bring the issue to the voters because it wouldn’t cost them a thing.

Plus I think the jail they built is far too much for GF.  They were thinking they’d run a for rent prison.  Jails are necessary, but do we want to make money from it?

What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.

The Whistler's signature
The Whistler on May 18, 2008 at 06:41 am
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