Say Anything Blog

David Drovdal, a Republican state representative from District 39 (Arnegard), has an op/ed in the Bismarck Tribune today blasting the North Dakota chapter of Americans for Prosperity over its proposed cut in taxes.

That a Republican would issue such a nasty, accusatory aspersion at a conservative group seeking tax cuts in a time of massive state budget surpluses is simply amazing.  And an indication that the NDGOP has some serious internal problems.

Drovdal’s main line of criticism lays with quoting Tax Foundation figures which he claims shows that North Dakotans aren’t taxed that much compared to other states.  And that is true.  Looking at a percentage of income, North Dakota is pretty “middle of the pack” when it comes to state and local tax burdens.

By my question to Drovdal is: Why should we care what the tax burden is in other states?  And in light of massive state budget surpluses, what justifications do we have to keep taxes high?

I think we can all agree that North Dakota, as a state, is constantly on the look out for new citizens and new businesses.  Given that we do have big budget surpluses right now, why wouldn’t we lower taxes right now while we can afford it so that we have a friendlier tax environment for both businesses and individuals?

The question for North Dakota is not “What does our tax situation look like compared to other states?” The question for North Dakota is “Do we need to keep taxes high or should we lower them to help attract businesses and citizens?”

Given that I see little reason to keep state taxes as high as they are now, I think the answer to the question is “lower taxes.” And the best proposal to do that, which doesn’t add additional paperwork and administrative expense as Governor Hoeven’s property tax rebate has done, is AFP’s initiated measure to cut income taxes by 50% and corporate taxes by 15%.