this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2024
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 122 points 4 months ago (2 children)
[–] dogsnest 59 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That'll show them socialist fascist commie lefty groomers.

[–] [email protected] 67 points 4 months ago (3 children)

"What do you mean we have no police,fire,schools,water,roads? What happened?"-- dumbasses who ended property tax at the urging of the wealthy

[–] clearedtoland 22 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Oh this is curious! Cause the solution would be for those services to be privatized. I wonder how many would pay for those services.

“No, Jimmy. You don’t need to go to skool. Now go change bale the hay.”

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago

Sure thing daddy-brother!!

gets mangled in the baler because he's an idiot then dies because they closed down the firestation and first responders

[–] jumjummy 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

What do you mean putting out the fire in my house costs me $25k?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Traditionally, privatized services like that just took the house.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

State created a sales tax to replace it.

"Why are my groceries so expensive!!!"

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 6 points 4 months ago

What do you mean we have no police,fire,schools,water,roads?

Somehow there's always money in the banana stand for more cops.

[–] Sgt_choke_n_stroke 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Look what happend to kansas after they cut taxes like that. Libertarianism fails faster than communist countries every time.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 4 months ago (2 children)

There definitely are better taxes than property taxes. But, since it's a red state, they would probably replace it with a worse one. Or just debt.

[–] NateNate60 67 points 4 months ago (4 children)

It'll probably be replaced with sales tax increases. Sales taxes are very well-known to be regressive.

Or think of "low-tax" Texas, where every other road is privately operated and charges tolls out the ass.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Even ignoring privatized services, taxes in Texas are higher than California for the average person. It’s a total myth unless you belong to the upper class.

[–] NateNate60 18 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Hence why "low tax" is between quotation marks

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

“Every other road…” serious [citation needed] there. I live in San Antonio (you know 6th, largest city, metro of 2.2m people) and there’s not a single toll road. Austin, Dallas and Houston have a few but it’s by far not every other road. You can get around on 10, 35, 45 and the corresponding ring roads just fine.

Also the property taxes here are quite high compared to a lot of other states, but as such there’s no state income tax.

[–] reddig33 10 points 4 months ago

I live in Austin and they’ve built a toll road bypass to the interstate, added toll lanes to loop 1, and now they’re adding them to 183.

[–] Countess425 4 points 4 months ago

Lt. Gov Dan Patrick is on a crusade to end property taxes and replace them with...🤷‍♀️

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

charges tolls out the ass.

User fees are so variable. We have a commuter rail system that is financially destitute because it was user-fee based and then #covid. Now it's in mortal disrepair - I know what I said - and trying to reduce services but keep prices high - shrinkflation - to remain financially viable.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

This would be great if it eliminated property tax for primary residences or something like that. Everything else is a handout to the wealthy.

[–] Telodzrum 50 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Big A Libertarian Walks into a Bear energy.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Fun fact. That was in Grafton, NH. NH doesn't have sales tax. Instead, there's a correspondingly high property tax.

At least they get good value for it. The schools aren't terrible, and the roads are better than the much wealthier state of MA right nearby.

[–] AbidanYre 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Does North Dakota have the same tourism industry that New Hampshire has?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Lol. One of the "must see places" was the state capital. Which is a 21-floor art deco style sky-scraper.

Woop-dee doo.

What a weird-ass state.

[–] loie 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Definitely not. There's Teddy Roosevelt National Park, which is gorgeous, but it doesn't attract nearly as much tourism of all the stuff that's four hours south...

South Dakota has Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Wind Cave National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, Mammoth Site, Black Hills National Forest, Deadwood and Sturgis, a couple good private zoos in Reptile Gardens and Bear Country. All of that stuff is within a 1 hour drive of Rapid City, which has plenty of good hotels and restaurants and just generally what you'd expect from a modern midsize city. Rapid City is honestly worth the trip for anyone, but If you're a real outdoorsy person then you could easily enjoy a month out there. Oh and then not that far away (relatively speaking - 2 hours drive) is Devil's Tower in Wyoming.

So no... NoDak is comparatively sparse. And they probably like it that way.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

Gonna get even more sparse when they eliminate running water and sewage service.

[–] AbidanYre 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

NoDak is comparatively sparse. And they probably like it that way.

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).

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[–] toiletobserver 40 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Another red welfare state making it worse

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

I'm pretty sure that this isn't a Democrat-Republican issue.

goes looking

Yeah.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/102015/7-best-states-property-taxes-and-why.asp

Nebraska and Texas have some of the highest effective property tax rates in the country.

Hawaii has one of the lowest, and California's pretty low too.

There's definitely regionality -- the Midwest has (mostly) high, and the western Great Plains states low -- but it doesn't really map to Democrat-Republican status.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

north dakota's tax burden overall is pretty low, though: 7th lowest among the states.

[–] exanime 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

But you have to compare it in context.

In Canada, Alberta has no sales tax because they make so much money from oil. In normal conditions and with a working government that is not idiotic, such a system could work. However they have a stupid government that only does this to buy votes so when oil drops they drown

So, in this context, does North Dakota have an alternative revenue stream to compensate?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

they have a stupid government that only does this to buy votes so when oil drops they drown

Remember, Peter Lougheed first won the region for the conservatives on a platform of fiscal resilience through diversification and using oil money specifically to fund the development and growth of people and sectors currently ignored. The ignored people liked this.

Then the party, after winning, gutted the plans.

So, it's not like this is their plan. It's their plan, despite alternative plans winning in the polls to get them the region, which were then gutted in favour of their plan. Said another way, they could have been better, the voters wanted better, they didn't get better, the voters didn't bury them for it. They're the "stop hitting yourself" of voters.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 4 months ago (4 children)

This is a terrible idea, property taxes are better than pretty much all of the alternatives

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 months ago (2 children)

They're replacing it with Land Value Tax, right? Right?..

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Or sales tax, or something else. High taxation and misuse of taxes is bad, but taxes themselves support the infrastructure everyone uses. So if they get rid of this, something else is going to have to take its place unless the property tax was way too high.

[–] Brkdncr 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I thought we’ve seen what happens when you don’t have blended tax sources.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

But surely, this time, it will work?!

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[–] Mediocre_Bard 30 points 4 months ago

That is a terrible idea if you want a functioning government.

That is a great idea if you want government to fail.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The roads will take 10 years to turn into alabama, but they will.

[–] Cort 29 points 4 months ago

Nope, North Dakota has snow and ice, so it won't even take 5.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago

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.

I guess if that's really what they want to defund, then go for it, but don't expect any federal dollars.

[–] anon_8675309 19 points 4 months ago

Whatever they will come up with will be regressive and mostly affect poor people.

[–] CptOblivius 10 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Once the most socialist states in the country...how far we have fallen. It is a politically sad place now.

[–] loie 4 points 4 months ago
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