North Dakota Tax

North Dakota voters to decide on abolishing property tax

By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY

North Dakota voters will decide Tuesday on the ultimate tax revolt: abolishing the property tax altogether. A citizen-led petition drive has put the daring, all-or-nothing proposal before the voters in a state flush with tax revenue, jobs and prosperity generated by an oil boom.

If the property tax is eliminated, it would be the first time since 1980 — when oil-rich Alaska got rid of its income tax — that a state has discontinued a major tax, reports the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan research group. North Dakota would become the only state not to have a property tax, a levy the state has had since before it joined the union in 1889.

"The oil boom makes it easier to get rid of the tax, but we started this before the oil boom took off," said Charlene Nelson, chairman of Empower The Taxpayer, which is leading the tax repeal effort. "Any state would benefit from this same thing."

 

Voters in North Dakota reject measure to end local property taxes

Published June 12, 2012

Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D. –  North Dakota voters have resoundingly defeated a proposal that would have made the state the first in the nation to abolish local property taxes.
Unofficial returns Tuesday showed voters rejecting the constitutional amendment.
The amendment drew opposition from North Dakota public school teachers and local governments. They get a large share of their revenues from local property taxes.
The measure required the North Dakota Legislature to replace the money lost from eliminating property taxes. That amount was estimated at more than $800 million annually.

Critics of the idea said the amendment would give too much power over local government budgets to the Legislature.

More than 27,000 people signed petitions to put the amendment on the ballot. Its supporters say North Dakota's property tax system is unfair and riddled with exemptions.