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