Shocker: Legacy Fund Being Used As Argument Against Tax Relief

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Written By:
Rob Port

Aug 15, 2011
3:45pm

During the last election cycle I argued against the creation of a Legacy Fund in North Dakota. The creation of the Fund was on the ballot as a constitutional measure, and pushed by an unholy alliance of Republicans and liberal interests such as the state’s teachers and public workers unions, and now that it’s been approved it has created a savings account into which the state is locking away tax revenues.

Ostensibly, this trust fund was sold to voters by its Republicans supporters as a way to slow down spending. But I, and a few others, argued that it would be used to tie up more money in government and be used as an argument against tax relief. And, not surprisingly, that’s exactly what is happening.

On the ballot this coming June will be a constitutional measure to abolish property taxes in North Dakota. Today Minot-area Republican legislator David Hogue argued in a statement from a legislative hearing played on KNOX AM1310 in Grand Forks that, despite billion-dollar surpluses, the state doesn’t have the funds available to abolish property taxes. Part of the reason he cited was the Legacy Fund created via a constitutional measure approved in the last election. The state can’t afford tax relief because the state must stuff tax revenues away in the Legacy Fund.

The Republican supporters of the Legacy Fund ought to be ashamed of themselves. The Legacy Fund won’t slow growth of government in North Dakota. It’s going to be used by the state’s spendthrift Republican leadership to oppose taking money out of government and taking it back to the taxpayers.

Whether you’re for abolishing property taxes in North Dakota (as I am) or against it, you can bet the Legacy Fund will be the leverage used against every single tax reduction suggested in the future.