North Dakota voters should soundly reject Measure 4, which would abolish property taxes in the state and put state lawmakers in charge of local spending decisions.
It’s a horribly short-sighted proposal that, if approved, would have disastrous consequences for North Dakota.
Let’s begin with this premise: Nobody likes taxes, the necessary but sometimes painful way of paying for government services like roads, police officers, parks and school teachers.
We pay taxes because doing so collectively helps us get around on streets, protects us with law enforcement, creates places for us to get outside and play and teaches our children so we have a functioning and safer society.
In North Dakota, taxes on property are how we pay for most local expenses in our cities, schools and park districts. Is there a better way? Maybe, but it’s yet to be identified.
Measure 4 would no longer allow property to be taxed for these local services, spending decisions that are now made at the local level by your elected neighbors.
Instead of our current system, proponents of Measure 4 want cities, school districts and park districts to lobby state lawmakers every two years for funds to pay for local expenses.
So instead of your locally elected officials deciding what to spend money on, they would be asking state lawmakers to give them money for police officers, local roads, teacher raises or new swings at the neighborhood park.
Proponents seem to think that lawmakers assembled in Bismarck will better know how to spend money in your community than those you locally elect to represent you in your city, school district and park district.
If Measure 4 is approved, larger cities and school districts, which also happen to have more representation in the state Legislature, will have more lobbying power and outsized influence on where state funds go to pay for local expenses. It could leave many smaller communities out in the cold.
The neutral research arm for the state Legislature says Measure 4 would increase state expenditures by $3.15 billion every two years.
Proponents of Measure 4 say one way to pay for that massive shortfall in tax revenue is the Legacy Fund, which has accumulated more than $10 billion in oil and natural gas tax revenue since voters created it in 2010 to create a perpetual source of state revenue from those finite national resources.
Tapping the Legacy Fund could only replace local property tax revenues for six years and leave the Legacy Fund nearly depleted.
Another likely move is replacing property taxes with sky-high sales taxes at the state level, local level or both. Doing so would literally drive consumers to cross state lines for nearly every good or product.
We understand that Measure 4 was born out of frustration with rising property valuations and poor spending priorities in many cities, school districts and park districts, but local citizens can fix those issues at the ballot box by voting for more fiscally conservative local officials.
Measure 4 takes the power away from local voters and concentrates that power at the Capitol.
North Dakotans should insist on local control and vote “no” on Measure 4.
This Forum Communications Co. editorial represents the views of Forum Communications Co., this newspaper’s parent company. It was written by the FCC Editorial Advisory Board.
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Publish date : 2024-09-21 00:22:00
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