North Dakota voters will decide this fall whether to eliminate property taxes in what would be a first for a state and a major change that officials initially estimate would require more than $1 billion every year in replacement revenue.
Secretary of State Michael Howe’s office said Friday that backers submitted more than enough signatures to qualify the constitutional initiative for the November general election. Voters rejected a similar measure in 2012.
Property taxes are the base funding for numerous local government services, including sewers, water, roads, jails, deputies, school building construction and teacher salaries — “pretty much the most basic of government,” said North Dakota Association of Counties Executive Director Aaron Birst.
And therein lies the problem. New Hampshire gets away with it because they have money coming in from people visiting the state (and the state owning the liquor stores).
And they get some “bedroom community” money from people working in and around Boston that don’t want to live in Mass. Not an unreasonable commute down i93 or i95, especially if your job is in the north burbs.
Pretty sure none of that applies in North Dakota. Maybe there’s folks working in Fargo or Grand Forks that prefer Minnesota? But it’s not many.