North Dakotans Need To Oppose Hoeven’s Phony Property Tax Relief

Down at the state legislature, the final push is on to pass SB2199. Those North Dakotans interested in limited government and fiscal responsibility should oppose this bill. It’s being sold as Governor John Hoeven’s property tax relief plan, but the idea that this is actually any sort of tax relief is just plain laughable.
What the bill will do is spend $300 million on schools with the hope that those schools will, in turn, cut their property taxes. The idea being that if the state funds a bigger share of the schools, local entities will lower property taxes because they won’t need that revenue any more. A nice theory, I guess, but given the reality of politicians what will likely happen is that they’ll spend the Governor’s $300 million plus every dime they’re collecting in property taxes now. There are no prohibitions in the bill that would stop local entities from accepting the additional funding in the state and then appropriating more spending for the non-education related functions of government the property tax supports.
Meaning that even if your local community gets this money, your property taxes might not go down. Probably won’t go down, given the spending history in most localities.
Plus, how is taking $300 million we overpaid in taxes to the state and spending it at the local level in the hope that they’ll lower property taxes tax relief? It’s not.
What we need to recognize in this state is that the state doesn’t collect the property tax. Thus, the state cannot solve property tax problems. They must be solved at the local level. And what’s more, by trying to solve problems with a tax they don’t collect the state is only encouraging people to keep bringing that problem to the state level instead of holding local officials accountable for the spending that’s driving high property taxes in the first place.
We need tax relief in this state. We especially need property tax relief. But all this bill is going to do is spend more of our tax dollars from the state level with absolutely no assurances that any local political leaders will translate that into actual tax relief of any sort for we citizens.
Call your representatives in the legislature. Tell them to vote against this bill. Americans have had enough of Obama’s big-government “stimulus” solutions at the national level. Let’s say enough is enough to big-government solutions here in North Dakota.